> Lovey Dovey and the Uncertain Stallion
>  by Crystal Wishes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A True and Honest Thought
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magnate rolled his shoulders to try to work out the kinks that had built up in his muscles from hunching over a desk all day.  He yawned wide, then started up the stairs of the apartment complex.  Night had come earlier than normal, or so it felt with the gloomy clouds lingering in the sky.

If he had to be honest, the whole of Manehattan had seemed to be overcast with a grey hue since Lovey Dovey had hopped the train back to Ponyville.  She had suddenly appeared, turned his world upside down with things like love lines and romance, and then just left without so much as an explanation.  His heart clenched with a brief pang of regret, but he shook his head to chase away the thoughts that swelled at the sound of her name in his mind's ear.

His horn lit up to unlock the door and he walked inside his apartment, dragging his hooves ever so slightly.  There, in the place he called home, was his only physical memory of her, resting on the coffee table: a letter he had received two days ago that simply read "I'll be seeing you."  Other than that, his life was completely normal and utterly mundane.

He dropped down onto the couch, the letter now hovering in the air above him.  The parchment was light pink and glittery.  Every time he reread it, glitter found its way into his coat, which had led to an awkward conversation at work the other day.  He chuckled to himself and reached out a hoof to tap on the levitated letter, sending a small shower of sparkling dust down onto his chest.

"I'll be seeing you," he muttered aloud and sighed.  "When, exactly?"  He touched it again, this time more of a caress than a tap.

The pink paper floated down to its place on the table and he rolled off the couch.  After a simple dinner, with nothing else to occupy his time, he simply went to bed.  A boring evening, just like every one he used to have before Lovey had entered his life, but somehow it just felt more lonely after having met her.

In the morning, an excited flurry of knocks came from the front door.  He was nearly startled right out of bed but managed to catch himself just before he tumbled off the edge, instead stepping down with a little more grace.

"Coming!" he yelled, though his voice was raspy and he had to cough to straighten it out.  "I'm coming!"

The knocking ceased.  He paused to take a deep breath in and let it out slowly, hoping to look more presentable if he could smile.  "Yes?" he asked as he opened the door, then added with a startled lump in his throat, "Lovey?!"

The smiling pink pegasus stood on a welcome mat.  He didn't have a welcome mat, so he had to pause first to wonder from where exactly it had come.  The copious amount of hearts lining the border of it was a pretty big giveaway as to the culprit for its sudden existence.

"I'm home!" Lovey squealed, hopping just barely off the ground in struggling excitement.

Magnate's gaze lifted from the mat to trace her form, which was nearly engulfed by a bulging bag tied around her middle.  It looked as though it would either burst at the seams, swallow her under its weight, or both.

The sight of it pulled his thoughts back to the matter at hoof and he furrowed his brow.  "Lovey, I'm happy to see you, but... what exactly is going on?"

Lovey stepped forward and managed to get a third of herself through the doorway.  Her front legs braced on the sides of the frame, she grunted and strained against the bag that prevented her from moving any further.  She gave up with a sudden gasp and collapsed to the ground.  "I'm"—she huffed—"home, d'uh."

Though he wasn't sure why, he looked around the apartment as if to confirm it was still indeed his and that he hadn't woken up in Ponyville.  "What?" was all he could think to ask.

Lovey pointed at the bag that threatened to smother her.  "Help me?"

With a little effort, he maneuvered his magic around the straps that tied the bag to her, then lifted it off her and set it just outside.  She gave a frustrated sigh, got back up onto all fours, and turned to look at it.

"No, no, Magny, I want the bag inside, not outside!"  She tossed her head and looked up at him, a small pout on her lips.  "For such a smart stallion, you totally got that wrong."

He raised a hoof in confused protest.  "Not until you—"  He cut himself off, the rest of the sentence ending up a strangled grunt in his throat.  "No, first, hello."  He stepped toward her and wrapped a hoof around her neck, then placed a light kiss on her cheek.  "How was the train?"

She leaned into his embrace.  "Just awful!  I couldn't fit into any of the seats with my luggage, which rather upset the conductor, because he couldn't get past me to check other ponies' tickets."  She sighed, nuzzling her face against his neck.  "Oh, I know it's only been four days, but I missed you so very much, Magny!  I'm sorry it took me so long to make arrangements!"

"Arrangements?"  He pushed against her to put enough distance between them so that he could look her in the eyes.  "What's going on, Lovey?"

"Huh?  What do you mean?"  She blinked up at him with sincere confusion.  "I thought that part was obvious!  I'm moving in, of course."

The words sent a sudden shock of surprise through him and he nearly jumped out of his coat.  "You're what?!"

She pointed at herself.  "I"—her hoof lifted and moved in a circle to gesture at his apartment—"am moving in."  A bright smile lit up her muddled expression as she pointed at him.  "With you!"

Magnate rubbed his temple, slowly shaking his head.  "Lovey, it's too soon for you to move in!  We have only been on one date."

"Oh, we can still go on dates!"  She giggled and pranced over to her bag.  "But we're meant to be, so why delay?  That just seems silly."

"To you, perhaps," he retorted a little too sarcastically.  The words fell out faster than he could think them through.  "To the rest of us, your 'meant to be' nonsense is just that: nonsense."  Finally, his brain caught up and his eyes widened.  "That's not—What I mean is—Lovey, I—"

She turned to face him with an amused smile, the corners of her mouth wrinkling as though she was struggling to keep laughter at bay.

"...  You're smiling?"  He blinked.  "You're not upset?"

"Of course I'm not upset!  Silly Magny."  She giggled and leaned against the doorframe.  The light caught in her eyes as she gazed up at him, making his heart skip a beat.  "I've been a matchmaker my whole life.  You don't think you're the first naysayer, do you?"  Another giggle bubbled up.  "Everypony comes around eventually at their own pace.  And when you come around to realize you're my very special forever somepony, I'll be ready!  I mean, I'm totally ready now, but I can wait."

Magnate sighed.  He put a hoof on hers, a small, weak smile on his lips.  "I'm sorry.  Anyway, you can stay here until you go back to Ponyville, if you'd like."

Lovey's smile fell and she tilted her head.  "Isn't that the same thing as moving in?"

"No."  His smile similarly fell.  "My version implies you leaving to return home at some point."

"But I can't do that!"  She sat on her haunches and crossed her forelegs over her chest.

His voice grew strained as he pressed, "And why not?"

Lovey huffed.  "Because Juniper's living there now.  I sold it to her since I thought I wouldn't need it anymore.  Which I don't!"  Her cheery air returned as she dropped back down onto all fours.

He stared at her, mouth slightly agape.  "What?"

"I'll just use the bits to rent an apartment for the time being.  They were going to help cover my portion of the rent, since I figured I should pull my weight, you know, but it'll take me some time to get settled here.  So the upfront bits seemed like a good idea!"

Magnate sighed and, despite knowing better, tried to catch her attention with a small wave of his hoof.  It was no use.  The rambling had started and she was lost to the world.

"Of course," she continued, "that's not to say that I won't figure something out for bits once my little fund runs dry.  I don't know exactly what I'll do, though.  I can't be a matchmaker anymore, considering that requires me to travel all the time, and I'm ready to settle down!"  She giggled, covering her mouth with both hooves like a school filly.

"Lovey..."  He waved his hoof again.

"Oh, Celestia, who ever thought I would be the one who gets to settle down?  After attending so many weddings for happy clients, I get to attend my own!  As the bride!  Should I start booking a venue?  Is it too soon for that, too?"

"Lovey!" he shouted and grabbed her by the shoulders.  He gave her a small shake for good measure.  "Lovey, look at me!"

Lovey blinked.  Her gaze, which had glossed over with glee, focused on him.  "Huh?"  She blinked again and smiled.  "What's wrong, Magny?"

He took a moment to catch his breath and wits before he asked carefully, "How can you sell your house, give up your job... leave your whole life behind?"  He frowned.  "What if it doesn't work out between us?"

One of her ears started to fold against her mane, but it snapped back into its usual perky, upright position.  "Of course it will!  We're soulmates, after all."  She playfully bopped him on the snout.  "Don't be such a Nervous Nelly!"

He sighed.  "Let's just start with breakfast, okay?"  He let go of her and walked to the kitchen.  "I'll make it while you figure out how to get your things inside."

"Roger that!"  She bounced back into the hall and grabbed the bag with her teeth, then tugged with all her might.

He listened to her struggle with a small amount of amusement, even glancing over in between cooking steps.  "Lovey?" he finally asked.

She grunted and let go of the bag to reply, "Yes?"

"It's Saturday."  He transferred the light meal to two plates.  "Do you want to go on a date after breakfast?"

A high-pitched, giggling squeal erupted while her wings fluttered, lifting her off the ground.  "Abso-positively-lutely!"  She sailed across the living room and threw her forelegs around his neck, swung around, and landed beside him.  "Where are we going to go?  What are we going to do?"

He smiled down at her.  "It's a surprise."

She squealed again and climbed onto one of the chairs.  Her hindhooves swung back and forth while she wiggled and bounced.  "I'm so excited!"

"I know."  He sat across from her.  "Now, eat your breakfast before your hummingbird wings blow it away."

Her wings paused for a moment, then continued flapping rapidly.  "Okay!"
> Bright and Breezy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Lovey, for the third time, would you please sit still?"  Magnate rubbed an ache that was growing between his eyes before pushing his glasses back into place.

Lovey huffed as she settled back down.  "But, Magny!  There's just so much to look at, I can't possibly enjoy it all by facing one direction all the time!"

Magnate gestured at the bowl of ice cream sitting in front of her.  "Is your sundae not enough?"

"What?  Of course!  But I—oh my gosh that is the cutest hat!  Look!"  She hopped up to stand with her hindlegs in her seat and waved her forelegs.  "Yoohoo!  Hello!  Where did you get that hat?!"

Magnate slammed a hoof on the table.  "Lovey, please!"  He winced and glanced around to see all eyes on them, then slumped down in his seat.  "You are embarrassing me," he muttered.

Lovey blinked, slowly lowering down to sit on her haunches.  "I'm what?"

"Embarrassing me," he repeated with bitter emphasis.  "Could you please just act normal, at least while we're in public?"

"But I am acting normal."  Her ears drooped.  "I'm sorry, Magny."

"Mm."  He drank the last sip of his coffee and glanced between her and the mostly untouched, partially melted sundae.   "Are you ready to go, then?"

She looked down at her sundae as well, then smiled up at him.  "Yup!"

They slid out of the booth and walked out of the diner after Magnate dropped bits on the table.  Silence held them for only a few paces before Lovey blurted, "I always wondered how I would fall in love."

Magnate's ear flicked and he didn't look at her, instead keeping his gaze forward as they walked down the sidewalk.  He had to figure out what they were going to do next.  A sundae clearly wasn't enough to keep her attention on the here and now.  "Oh?"

"I thought maybe it might be something oh-so-wonderful, like we bump into each other and our hooves touch and our eyes meet and my heart starts racing and I realize he's the one!  Or I go shopping and he's at the register and he asks if I found everything I was looking for and our eyes meet and my heart starts racing and I realize he's the one!  Or I'm travelling to track down a client's love line and I get lost and he comes up to me and asks if he can help and our eyes meet and my heart starts racing and I realize he's the one!"

Magnate just stared at her while she elaborated on the various scenarios that all ended the same.  His ears pinned back against his mane and he shuffled his hooves somewhat awkwardly.  "Lovey..."

She beamed at him.  "Yes?"

"You do realize that none of those situations happened with us."  He couldn't quite explain it, but that fact settled on his stomach like rocks.  It was a heavy, uncomfortable weight.

"Oh, don't be silly!  I'm perfectly happy with our story!"  She bounded closer to him and brushed their sides together.  "It's the real one, after all, isn't it?"

Magnate hesitated.  Their story?  Their story encompassed a week's time of him wanting nothing more than for her to leave him alone, and then realizing he didn't want that at the last minute.  What sort of romance was that?  "I suppose," was all he could commit to, but he did offer her a light smile.  "As long as you're happy."

Lovey gasped and bounded forward a few steps, her wings starting to quiver.  "But we should both be happy, Magny!  That's the wonder and beauty of love!  Love lines go both ways when they tie ponies together, after all!"

"Right, of course."  He sighed, brow furrowed.  "You've never really explained how love lines work, actually.  It seems like nonsense to me."

"Oh!"  She skidded to a halt in front of him.  Her gaze darted about, ears flopping almost wildly, until she locked onto a target.  "There!"  She snatched Magnate's hoof and put it to her chest, sending a strange, tingling sensation along Magnate's spine.  "Okay, do you see that stallion over there?"  She pointed with her free hoof.  "The one standing in line for coffee?"

The stallion in question seemed rather ordinary.  He looked like every other businesspony in Manehattan, with a slicked-back mane, a short tail, and a no-nonsense expression.  Magnate glanced between the stallion, Lovey, and his hoof clasped in hers.  "Yes?"

"Close your eyes."

After a moment of reluctance, Magnate did so.  "All right."

Lovey kept his hoof held to her chest and he felt her take in a slow, measured breath.  Quietly, she instructed, "Now open them."

As he opened his eyes, his ear flicked at the sound of her exhaling, and his hoof twitched at the feeling of her heart suddenly fluttering.  He jerked his head to the side to look at her and saw that her pupils were constricted, her gaze fixated firmly on the stallion across the street.

"Are you okay?" he asked, brow furrowed.  "Your heart's racing."

When she looked up at him, her pupils dilated back to a normal size.  "Yup!"  She giggled.  "That's part of how it works!  When I focus on the stallion, I can see the glow around him.  He's going to fall in love soon, and my heart says it's going to be very soon.  His very special somepony-to-be is super close!"

Magnate stared at her as he tried to work it out.  He felt her heartbeat start to calm down from its erratic dance, at which point he said, "I don't understand.  If these... 'love lines' connect ponies fated to be together, then exactly what do you do?"

Lovey booped him on the nose with her free hoof.  "Oh, don't be silly!  Love lines don't decide who you'll be with.  They decide who you'd be best with, but it's up to you to make the choice!  I help ponies find the ends of their love lines so they can live happily ever after."

"Oh."  He blinked.  "And if they don't find the end?"

"Well, then, their love line seeks out the next pony meant for them."  She giggled.  "Nopony ends up alone unless they want to be, in which case they're not really alone, because that's such a sad and lonely word when they're not sad or lonely at all!  Now, ponies are lonely all over Equestria, and that is really sad, but there's somepony out there for them.  They just have to find them, or find somepony like me who can help them out!  Of course, there's..."

Magnate's head moved to nod as though he were listening, but his mind was racing to other thoughts.  If things didn't work out between them, Lovey could find somepony else.  Her love line would take her to a better pony.  That knowledge gave him some sense of relief.

He cleared his throat and waited for her to pause to catch her breath so he could interrupt, "Why don't we go home?"  He glanced up at the sky.  "I think rain is scheduled for this afternoon, and we still need to find a place for you to stay."

"Oh, right."  Her ears drooped just slightly, but she perked back up as she squealed, "I'll race you there!"

"I'm not racing."  Magnate frowned as he followed behind her at his usual pace.

"Then I'm going to win!"

"It's not a win if I'm not participating."  He couldn't help crack a small smile despite his neutral tone.

Lovey tossed her head to stick her tongue out at him as she took to the sky, her wings spread out wide, each feather flared as if they all wanted a chance to feel the wind.  He watched as she soared overhead and ignored her taunts to instead admire her physique.  He never paid too much attention to pegasi, but she seemed to be in good form.  Her long, flowing mane and tail whipped about as she did a barrel roll and cheered, "I'm winning!"

Magnate chuckled.  "Yes, yes."  He kept trotting along the sidewalk toward his apartment complex.  "You're winning and losing."

"What?!"  She swooped down and hovered just above him.  "How can I be losing if I'm winning?"

Magnate tilted his head back to look up at her.  "If you're the only pony participating, that means you're coming in first and last."

Lovey puffed out her cheeks, scrunched up her nose, and finally made a high-pitched harrumph of disdain before she dropped down.  "You're a spoilsport.  Magny, I swear on my honor as an ex-matchmaker that I will discover your sense of humor and reconnect the two of you!  I don't know how long it will take but I will track it down!"

He did his very best not to grin.  "I have a perfectly fine sense of humor."

She just stuck her tongue out at him.

"Let's focus on your situation first.  You need a place to stay and a job to afford it."  He started up the stairs toward his floor and his horn lit up to work the lock, but Lovey just turned the knob and let herself in.  His jaw went slack.  "What?"

Lovey turned to look at him, her head tilting.  "What what?"

Magnate grumbled as he pulled the door shut and wiggled the knob.  It was clearly, firmly locked.  He cast the unlocking spell and pushed it open to peer at Lovey.  "How did you unlock it?"

"The power, of course!"  She beamed.

"What power?"  He cautiously stepped inside, shutting the door behind him, and testing the lock once more after it clicked into place.

"The power of ardor!"

His ear flicked and he looked at her again to see her swaying from side to side, humming a little tune.  Her merry expression made him smile until he realized he had forgotten what she said.  The power of—"Who do?"

She jumped forward, wrapped her forelegs around his neck, and chirped, "You do!"

"Do what?"

"Remind me of my love!"  She pecked a light kiss on his lips and giggled before she pulled back.  "What are we doing?"

Magnate blinked a few times.  "I was going to ask you the very same question."  He sighed and rested his forehead to hers.  "Can you just walk into anypony's home without having to unlock their door?  Is this part of your love line power?"

"Huh?  Oh, don't be silly!"  She nuzzled their noses together.  "When you unlock your door, there's a little song in the air, so I just sing it in my heart and the lock unlocks!  It's like the key to your heart is in my heart, but the key to your home, which is very different but also not really if you think about it, because you love your privacy, so really, unlocking your home is quite a lot like unlocking your heart!"

After a quiet moment of trying to process this, Magnate grumbled, "This sounds like a defect in my magilock.  I'll have to report it to the manufacturer immediately."

"If you say so!  You would know best."  She smiled.  "What now?"

Magnate slipped out of her grasp and started over to the couch, his magic levitating the newspaper off the coffee table.  "We see if there are any ads that strike your fancy.  I suppose it wouldn't be fair to shove you into a new place without a steady income."

Just as he brought the newspaper over to read, Lovey dropped down onto the couch to sit in his lap.  "Okay!"

He opened his mouth to protest, but when she nestled her back against his chest, a warm sensation that gripped his cheeks in a light blush argued otherwise.  He raised his forelegs with the thought to hold her to him.  They froze just as they twitched into action.

He should just hug her.  She had done more than that.  Tartarus, he had done more than that!  They'd kissed.  Hugging was much easier than that.

But this wouldn't be hugging.  It would be cuddling.  Was he ready for cuddling?

Deciding that the indecision was a clear sign that he wasn't, he lowered his forelegs back to his sides and did everything he could to focus on the newspaper hovering in front of them.

"Let's see," he said after clearing his throat, "there are several job opportunities.  You could be a grocer."

Lovey gasped and clapped her hooves.  "Just like Dad!"

"What?"  He inclined his head to look down at her.  "Your father's a grocer?  For a grocery store?  As in, a normal, ordinary grocer?"

She nodded idly.  "Yup!  Dad's a grocer.  And Dad's a weatherpony.  He specializes in snowstorms!"  A hoof raised to tap on the newspaper.  "Ooh, hey, look!  I could also be a florist!  That sounds like so much fun!  I could help ponies find the perfect flowers for their perfect special somepony!"  She gasped, snatched the newspaper from his magic's grasp, and squealed.  "Oh, oh, oh!  Magny, it's perfect!  I can't let this opportunity pass by!"

"What oppor—"

"Toodles!"  Lovey sprung into the air and her wings buzzed into action as she zipped to the door, which she slammed shut behind her.

That meant Magnate was left alone with his frown and his confusion.   "... Okay."   He sighed and leaned back into the couch, lifting his gaze to the ceiling.

So her father was an ordinary stallion.  A weatherpony and a grocer.  Likely the former during the cold months up north, if he specialized in snowstorms, and the latter the rest of the year.  It was hard to believe that Lovey had such humble roots, but perhaps she got her eccentricities from her mother.

Poor stallion.  He probably never got a word in with Lovey and her mother around.  But then again, if she was anything like Lovey, then Magnate could understand why the stallion put up with it.  The bubbling energy was infectious... which was a good thing.  His world was full of color again, and he wanted it to stay that way.
> Day by Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lovey looked at the newspaper in her hoof, at the door in front of her, and back at the paper.  Yup!  The numbers matched!  This was most definitely the place!  Her wings fluttered with excitement as she knocked twice, once, and twice again.

A few moments later, a crystal unicorn answered the door.  She had a shimmering coat like black onyx that contrasted with her silver mane and tail.  Her expression was somewhere between calm and empty as she raised one brow.  "Hello.  May I help you?"

"Oh, I certainly hope so!"  Lovey raised the newspaper.  "Are you the pony who put this ad in the paper for a roommate?"

The mare blinked slowly.  "Is the ad for a room at this address?"  She lifted a hoof and gestured Lovey inside.  "The answer is yes, so therefore, yes, I am that pony.  I assume you're interested in answering the ad.  Please, come in."

Lovey pranced past her, pausing to look around.  The layout was similar to Magnate's, but bigger.  There was an extra door off to the right, the kitchen was a full kitchen instead of a little one, and she had a couch, a loveseat, and a recliner in the living room!  Most of the available wallspace was taken up by shelves and shelves of books.  More books than Lovey could even comprehend!

"My name is Derelict Apathy," the mare said, shutting the door and taking a seat on the chair.  "Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Sure!"  Lovey hopped onto the couch and hugged a throw pillow to her chest, her wings ruffling before settling in at her sides.  "I am Lovey Dovey, matchmaker extraordinaire!  Well, I was up until, like, this morning.  This morning I quit my job so I could move here to move in with my coltfriend, but he says it's too soon for that, so I have to find my own place.  I think this would be an absolutely perfect place, because it would make me his two-floor one-door neighbor, which is practically living together!"

Derelict blinked slowly.  "I see."

Lovey giggled as she fell over onto her side.  "I'm so very, very excited!  Once he's ready—and I'm sure that won't take too terribly long—then I can move in and we'll start our life together as very special forever someponies!"

"Uh-huh."  A notepad and pencil lifted in Derelict's magic and she started to take notes.  "And how does your coltfriend feel about this?"

"Magny?  Oh, well, he and I are very different ponies."  She nuzzled the pillow.  "He wants to take things slow.  And that's okay!  I can wait!  Because I know he's the best for me and I'm the best for him.  I've waited so very long to find my special somepony and if I have to wait a little longer, well, that's okay!  He'll realize it eventually!"

The pencil worked furiously to keep up.  "I see.  And how does it make you feel that he wants you to wait?"

Lovey inclined her head to blink at Derelict.  "Huh?  Well, I suppose it made me a little sad at first!"

"And how do you know you two are right for each other if you don't view your relationship as at the same stage as each other?"

"Because of the love lines, of course!"  Lovey giggled.  "They told me so!"

One eyebrow raised, Derelict continued to write, though she was able to maintain eye contact with Lovey while doing so.  "Tell me about these love lines."

Lovey wiggled with excitement as she sat upright again.  "Love lines are the wonderful forces that connect ponies together!  They're kind of like love destinies, except less rigid.  More like love suggestions.  Really strong love suggestions!"

"Mmhm.  And you believe you can see these love lines?"

"Believe?"  Lovey sputtered into laughter and waved a hoof.  "Oh, I more than believe!  I can see that I can see them!  In fact—"  She paused and looked at Derelict's chest.

It took a moment for things to come into view, but she saw them eventually.  The little lines in varying shades of red and pink that crisscrossed and zigzagged amongst all the other love lines that flowed through the air.  They stood out against the mare's black onyx coat, but it was hard for her to tell them apart with how they were muddled and blurred.

"Aww…  You don't know what you want?"  Lovey sighed, shaking her head.  "You poor thing!  I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, though!"

Derelict glanced down at herself, then back up.  The familiar look of skepticism Lovey had seen her whole life was plastered on the mare's face.  "Mmhm.  Interesting."

"Yup!"  Lovey tried to smile, but her heart had started to race.  Now that she had looked for them, she saw them everywhere.  Love lines drifted all over the room, slipping in through a window over here and disappearing into a wall over there.  Some were strong, some were weak, and some were aimless.

The furniture was dark.  The floors were dark.  It was too easy to see them.  Lovey's gaze darted about in a fruitless search for somewhere to look where they faded away.  Her heart pounded all the way into her ears.

"So!" she blurted out and clapped her hooves.  "Can I be your roommate?"

"Can you?"  Derelict finished up her last note and snapped the notebook shut.  "You can, and you may.  In fact, I insist.  I haven't—"  She furrowed her brow when Lovey jumped into the air and flew toward the door.  "Where are you going?"

Lovey responded with the only word at the forefront of her mind: "PINK!"


♥ ❤ ♥ ❤ ♥


Prench toast was the breakfast of lovers, and Lovey was determined to make it.  She had snuck into the kitchen extra early to ensure she had enough time to practice the dish, and boy, did she need it!  What was she on, her third or fourth attempt?  No matter!  Love would guide her hooves into making the best Prench toast in Equestria.

A door creaked open and hoofsteps started to draw near before their owner went still.  After a moment of silence, a groggy voice asked, "Lovey?"

Lovey spun around, her frilly pink apron flaring out before settling back into place.  "Good morning, Magny!"

Magnate pushed his glasses up to rub at his eyes, then squinted at her.  "What are you doing in my apartment?"

"Making you breakfast, of course!  And I think I almost have it this time!"

"'This time'?"  He walked over and frowned at the trash bin, which was full of discarded Prench toast mishaps.  "I see.  And let me guess.  You got in by 'singing a song in your heart'?"

Lovey booped him on the nose with one hoof, giggled, and spun back around to check the skillet.  "How else, silly?"

Magnate sighed and tried to smile.  "Okay.  We'll talk about that later.  Did you find a place to stay?"

"Absolutely, my two-floor one-door neighbor!"  Lovey winked.  "I have a roommate, too!  She's great!  Actually, she reminds me a lot of you!"

"And why is that?" he asked idly, pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

Lovey's wings ruffled as she giggled.  "Because she asks lots of questions like that!  And 'how does that make you feel?'  She's really concerned about my feelings, which is awfully nice of her!"

He just stared at her while he slowly drained the glass.  "Did you find a roommate, or a therapist?"

"A roommate, of course!  That was what it said in the newspaper, anyway.  Why would the newspaper lie?"  Lovey waved a hoof.  "It wouldn't!  But, here, I think this one's right."  She flipped the skillet over to drop the toast onto a plate—along with all the butter and grease that it had been cooking in.

"Lovey!"  Magnate's magic grabbed a hooftowel and quickly worked on the mess.  "What were you thinking?"

Her ears drooped.  "Well, I was thinking about how silly it would be for a newspaper to lie, and then how excited I was for you to try what I made…"

Magnate opened his mouth to speak, but bit back his words.  Her ears drooped even further.  He was going to scold her, wasn't he?  No, he was going to, but he was such a gentlepony that instead, he was breathing in and out in a frustrated sigh.  Well, that was a step above scolding.

"I don't need you to make me breakfast.  I appreciate it, but it's fine.  Orange juice and some cereal is fine."  Just as she started to spring into action, he put a hoof on her shoulder to stop her.  "And I've been making that for myself for years.  So, why don't you go back to your apartment?"

"What?"  She blinked a few times.  "But…  If I'm at my apartment, how can I give you a kiss and tell you to have a good day at work and then make your bed and clean the kitchen?"

His brow furrowed.  "You don't have to do any of that."

"But I want to…"  She sighed.  "Please?"

"Lovey, just—"  He sucked in another breath, then leaned in and kissed her cheek.  "I appreciate it, but I don't need it.  You just got here yesterday, so why don't you get settled before you worry about things like that?"

Oh, how was she supposed to feel?  A kiss on the cheek—wonderful!  Him not needing her—awful!  While she struggled with what expression she should make, Magnate filled a bowl with cereal and took it over to the small dining table.

"Okay," she mumbled, settling on a half-smile.  "I'll go get settled.  But can I still give you a kiss and tell you to have a good day at work?"

Magnate looked over at her and, after a moment of thought, he replied in a cautious tone, "You can this morning."

"I'll take it!"  She flew over the table, kissing him on her way past, and chirped as she sailed out the door, "Have a good day at work, honey!"

Once she was out of sight, the half-smile fell.  Oh, Magnate had no sense of romantic adventure!  But that was okay.  She could be patient.  She was the most patient pony ever!  After all, how long would she have to wait, anyway?

"Welcome back, Lovey Dovey," Derelict said from the recliner, where she was looking over a Scientific Equestrian Mind magazine.  "I see you decorated last night."

Lovey giggled as she landed in the middle of the living room.  "I did!  I hope you don't mind.  I just really, really needed a bit more color in here."

Derelict lowered the magazine and made a show of looking around at all the pink additions to the room.  They had been carefully chosen based on their shades' proximity to the color of love lines and placed around the apartment so she always had somewhere safe to look.

"Well, I suppose one more color is, by definition, 'a bit more color' than what there was before."  Derelict returned her attention to what she had been reading.

Lovey pranced her way over to the kitchen.  "Do you want anything for breakfast?"

"Are you offering to make something?"  She flipped to the next page.  "If yes, then I suppose you would have to tell me what you can make with what we have."

"Oh, um...  I hadn't thought that far ahead!"  Lovey hummed to herself as she rummaged through the fridge.  "What do you want?"

There was a small pause before Derelict replied, "I reiterate: what can you make with what we have?"

Lovey peeked around the fridge door.  "I'm actually not sure!  I just learned how to make Prench toast this morning.  Juniper usually took care of breakfast… and lunch… and dinner…  Or I'd just eat out!"

"Is that so?"  Derelict shifted in the recliner to look at her.  "And who is Juniper?"

"My best friend!"  Lovey beamed as she trotted over and sat down, the feathers of her wings ruffling with excitement.  "Juniper and I have been friends ever since I moved to Ponyville.  I had to have an office that had a central location that all ponies could reach, and Canterlot was too expensive.  So I moved to Ponyville and met Juniper."  She giggled.  "Her first words to me were, 'Are you lost?'  She was always so funny!"

Derelict's notebook had returned, the pencil already hard at work.  "Interesting.  And when you say office, do you mean a place of business?"

Lovey puffed out her chest with pride.  "Oh, yes!  I am the best matchmaker in all of Equestria!"  She blinked a few times, then started to deflate.  "Or at least, I was until I quit to move here so I could be with Magnate."

"You quit your job to be with him?  I see."  Derelict nodded slowly.  "I'm starting to understand your relationship a bit better."

"Understand my relationship?"  Lovey rose to her hooves, shaking her head.  "Oh, there's nothing to understand beyond that he and I are going to be very special someponies!  Anyway, I think I saw some fruit.  Fruit is a breakfast food!"

Derelict clicked her tongue in thought.  "If there's any cantaloupe, I wouldn't mind some of that."

"Coming right up, Derry!"  Lovey hummed while she sliced the fruit and started to arrange the pieces on a plate.  Derelict was super smart, but she didn't know anything about love.  Lovey, on the other hoof, knew everything there was to know about love.  Her relationship would be just fine once Magnate was ready to accept it!
> Putting it My Way
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Knock, knock," Rare Chance said as he pushed open the door to Magnate's office.  "Have a moment?"

Magnate quickly rose to his hooves.  "Of course, sir."

Rare Chance chuckled, waving a hoof as he walked inside, the door shutting behind him.  "Sit, sit.  I'm your boss, not a princess."

Magnate responded with a polite laugh before sitting back down.  Laugh for the boss.  It was right there in his job description between 'Put together reports' and 'Give presentations on reports'.  He had just neglected to see it when he accepted the position.

"I just came to let you know that the yearly reviews are coming up.  You know what that means."  Rare Chance tapped a forehoof on the desk.  "This year might be your year."

His year.  Magnate's chest swelled with pride.  He had been working toward that promotion for so long, and it sounded like this year was finally the one.

"Thank you, sir."  Magnate smiled.  "I look forward to my review."

Rare Chance opened his mouth to speak further, but paused.  His gaze drifted away from Magnate's, and Magnate tried to follow its direction.

And that was when he saw it.

Taped to the side of his stapler was a red paper heart, and on it were the words, "You can do it!"

"What's this?" Rare Chance asked, his brow raising.

Magnate had never felt his face so hot as his magic ripped the note off the stapler, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the bin.  "Nothing!  A joke.  Just a prank.  It's nothing.  Nothing at all."

Rare Chance's brow remained up before he chuckled.  "Pranks!  It's good to see you're finally getting along with your coworkers.  Keep it up!"  He tapped the desk again.  "Keep it up."

Though he was certain his face was still red, Magnate tried to smile with utmost professionalism.  "Yes, sir.  Thank you, sir."

Waiting until his boss had left and he was alone again, Magnate raised his hooves to his burning face.  Lovey!  How did she even get that there?  When had she broken into his office?  Why?

No, he didn't have time to think about this.  He had to get the presentation ready for the end of the week.  He'd just have a talk with Lovey after he got home.  She'd probably be in his apartment waiting for him, anyway.  Probably with dinner ready.

Unbidden, a smile had spread across his face.  He realized that when he saw a few of his coworkers pressed up against the glass that separated him from them.

"What?" he mouthed, and his ears flattened back when they all responded with exaggerated smiles.  "Get back to work!"  He waggled his hooves.  "Slackers!"

This was ridiculous!  Yes, he would definitely have to talk to her.  For now, however, work needed his focus.  His magic pulled the calculator closer, only to reveal a pink paper heart had been hiding underneath it.

"You're the best!" the note said.

"Lovey," Magnate grumbled.  He started to toss it in the trash bin with the first, but hesitation gripped him.  Instead, he levitated the red heart out, the crumpling undoing itself as it joined the pink one in hovering in front of him.

"You can do it!" Lovey's voice said in his mind as he read her hoofwriting over again.  "You're the best!"

The smile started to return.  It was completely unprofessional, but it was a nice gesture on her part.  She meant well, after all.  He pulled open a drawer and went to drop the notes in it instead of the bin and froze when he found yet another heart.

"I love you!" the note exclaimed.

Magnate rose from his seat and glanced about his office.  All right, now this was becoming less sweet and bordering on ridiculous.  Just how many of these hearts had she hidden?

It turned out she had hidden thirty-seven.  Or, rather, he could only find thirty-seven.  It was such an odd number that he feared for how many he was still missing.  "Don't give up!" had been hiding inside a folder.  "Hi Handsome!" was inside the lampshade.  "Don't work too hard!" fell out of a book.  The list went on and on!

"Magnate?" a voice asked from the door.  Magnate jolted upright from where had been crawling under his desk, narrowly avoiding hitting his head against the underside, and saw one of his coworkers standing there.

Who was it?  Sealed Deal?  Magnate frowned.  "Yes?"

"Are you all right?"  Sealed Deal tried to smile.  "You've been tearing your office apart for the past hour.  Did you lose something?"

"The past hour?!"  Magnate jumped out from under the desk.  He stared at the clock in shock.  "Why didn't you stop me sooner?!"

Sealed Deal's attempt at a smile failed and fell.  "Because you always say to never interrupt you unless it's important."

"Losing an hour of work is important!"  Magnate hurried around to sit down and pulled his reports toward him.  "An hour!"  He scowled.  "What a waste!"

Oh, he was going to give her a piece of his mind.  He needed work to be strictly about work!  He had put far too much time and effort into this promotion to blow it by searching for pointless little notes.  Quickly, his magic pulled a drawer open, stuffed the hearts in it, and, as he pushed it shut, he shoved the thought of them from his mind.

Magnate's gaze darted about the various papers in front of him.  Bits... bonds... stocks... expense ratios... index funds...  All of the information stared back at him in disorganized chaos.

"Knock, knock!" a much-too-cheerful voice chimed.

"What now?!"  Magnate jerked his head up, then blinked.

Lovey stood in the doorway to his office, a little basket balanced on her back.  "What now?"  She giggled.  "It's lunch now, silly!"

Magnate waved a hoof to gesture her in, glaring at the ponies who leaned out of their cubicles to look.  "I pay for a pony to deliver my lunch.  You know that."

"I don't know that!"  Lovey reached up, grabbed the basket, and set it on his desk.

"Yes...  Yes, you did.  When we first met."  He eyed the basket.  A bunch of grapes poked out beside what looked like a wrapped sandwich.

Lovey giggled and shook her head.  "That wasn't when we first met!"

"Okay, all right.  But you still knew that."  Curiously, his magic lifted the sandwich to see what was underneath it.  A sugar cookie in a clear wrapping with a lopsided smiley face drawn on it in yellow icing.

"Oh, yes, I knew that!"  She placed her forehooves on the desk and fluttered her wings.  "But I don't know that."

He glanced up at her.  "What?  You just said you knew that, so of course you know that."

She shook her head, her silky pink tresses bouncing freely.  "Nope!"

After a moment of waiting for her to explain—and, of course, she didn't—Magnate pressed, "Okay.  So how did you knew that but not know that?"

"Because I cancelled the delivery service for you!"  She beamed.  "I can bring you lunches now, which means we can spend a little time together while you have your lunch break!  So I knew you had it, but now I don't know it, because you don't!"

"You... cancelled..."  He gave a long, drawn-out sigh as he tried to work through it all.  She meant well.  He just had to keep repeating that.  She meant well.  "I don't take a lunch break.  I just eat while I work.  That's why I have a sandwich delivered."

Lovey made a small 'o' with her lips, then nodded and dropped her rump down to sit on the floor.  "That's okay!"  She rested her chin on the edge of his desk.  "I don't mind if you work."

His ears flicked back.  She meant well.  She just wanted to be with him.  He could eat and work with her there and they'd both be happy.  This could work.  Giving her a smile, he bobbed his head.  "Okay."

Just as his magic unwrapped the sandwich, Lovey asked, "So, what are you working on?"

This wouldn't work.  He glanced between her and his calculator.  "I'm trying to focus."

"Oh, right!  Of course."  She wiggled some to settle into a different position, keeping her head above the desk.  Her mouth opened, but she quickly snapped it shut.  She shifted again.  Her mouth opened and closed.

He had to give her credit.  For Lovey, she was doing really well.  Unfortunately, every time she moved, he glanced at her.  He couldn't help it.  His productivity was dropping dramatically with her there.

"Lovey," he finally said, sighing and straightening up.

She perked straight up, much like an affection-starved dog.  "Yes?" 

"Why don't you go home?"  He offered a smile.  "We can have dinner at my place and I'll tell you all about my day.  How does that sound?"

"Oh, okay!"  Lovey jumped to her hooves.  A few rapid, excited flaps of her wings lifted her off the ground.  "That sounds great!  I'll be waiting for you, then, darling!"  Before he had a chance to react, she flew over his desk, kissed him, then zipped out of his office.

That uncomfortable heat crawled back into his cheeks and he ducked his head when he saw eyes staring at him through the glass.  Ponyfeathers.  How could she be so casual about everything?  He shifted in his seat and ran a hoof through his mane to smooth it out.  They were going to have to have a talk, but for now, he needed to work... once he stopped blushing.

His ear flicked at the sound of laughter.  That was abnormal.  He looked up and gawked at the most unfortunate sight out in the main room.

Lovey was surrounded by all of his coworkers.  She was talking to them.  They were talking to her!  Oh, Celestia, what kind of things was she saying?  Some of them were laughing!  His hooves couldn't move fast enough to get him around his desk and to the door.

"Lovey!" he shouted, unfortunately bringing all the attention to him.  "Go home!"

"Aww," a few of the ponies around her said as Lovey squealed and fluttered over to the elevator.  For the most part, the crowd dispersed, but that one stallion who was always talking to Magnate approached.

"Lovey, huh?"  Deal... Striker?  Deal Whoever grinned.  "She's a real cutie, Magnate!  Congrats!  What's her name?"

Magnate's ears flattened to the side.  "Her name is Lovey Dovey.  Don't you have work to do?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then perhaps you should get back to it if you want to get anywhere in your career," Magnate snapped as he turned to retreat back into his office.  These laze-abouts were too complacent.  They were happy with their meager paychecks and content to underachieve.  Well, not Magnate, he—

Just barely loud enough for Magnate to hear, Deal grumbled in a low and bitter voice, "What does a pony like her see in him?"

The door swung shut, leaving Magnate alone in his office.  He stood there, blinking a few times.  Why did his chest hurt from a few simple words?  He'd heard worse said about him before.  Slowly, his gaze fell to one of the heart-shaped pieces of paper that hadn't made it into his drawer.

In silly, curly hoofwriting, the little pink heart tried to assure him, "You're the best!"

But was he really?
> Getting to Know You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Making lunch for my lovey dove dove, my lovey dove dove," Lovey sang as she glided across the kitchen to retrieve a bunch of grapes from the fridge.

"But aren't you Lovey Dovey?" Derelict asked from her usual spot on the recliner chair, a book of overly complicated puzzles floating in her magic.  "So you're Lovey Dovey, making lunch for your lovey dove dove?"

Lovey giggled.  "That's right!  Magnate is Lovey Dovey's lovey dove dove.  Isn't it wonderful?"

Derelict declined to comment, instead tapping her pen against the page facing her.  Poor Derri, she was so terribly smart, but she didn't know a thing about love!  Sometime, Lovey would have to sit her down and explain the wonderful magic of love to her.  But for now, she had to get Magnate's lunch ready so when it was time, she could just go straight to Eminence Tower to see him!

"Well, when you've finished with that," Derelict said, "perhaps you can answer a few questions for me."

With a slice of bread in one hoof and a bunch of grapes in the other, Lovey gave a small flutter of her wings to glide into the living area.  "Sure!"

The puzzles had been quickly replaced with a notebook, pen ready to take notes rather than solve challenges.  "How long have you and Magnate known each other?"

"Oh, that's a really good question!"  Lovey almost put the grapes on the bread, paused to stare at her hooves in surprise, then hurried back to the kitchen.  Once she had set down the grapes in favor of a knife to spread peanut butter, she answered, "Just shy of two weeks, I think!"

Derelict choked, which was rather strange, since she hadn't been eating or drinking anything.  "Only two weeks?"

"Well, when you meet your very special forever somepony, and they meet you, two weeks is a very long time, actually!  Two weeks is like, forever!  So in a few days, it will be our forever anniversary!"

"I see."  Derelict saw a lot.  Her vision was fantastic.  "And after two weeks, you want to move in with him?"

Lovey spun around, hugging the nearly full lunch bag to her chest.  "After two weeks, I want to do more than just move in with him!"  She came to a sudden stop and put on a serious face.  "But he isn't ready.  And that's okay!  I can wait.  I mean, after all, how long can he deny that we're meant to be together?"

Before Derelict could reply, a few knocks from the door interrupted her, followed by Magnate's voice.  "Lovey?  Are you awake?"

"See!" Lovey practically squealed.  "Meant to be!"  With a skip in her step, she pranced her way over to the door and threw it open.  "Good morning, Magny!"

Magnate stood there, ready for work with his little collar and tie, briefcase suspended in his magic beside him.  He was such a cute little business pony!  "Good morning, Lovey."  He kissed her cheek, sending a little bubble of delight through her.  "Do you have my lunch ready?"

Lovey blinked.  "Your lunch?"

"Yes.  My lunch.  I'll save you the trip to the office and pick it up now."  His gaze flickered to look past her and he tilted his head.  "Oh, hello.  Are you Lovey's roommate?"

Derelict rose from the chair and walked over, her expression as blank as always.  "Yes.  Hello.  I'm Derelict Apathy.  Do you have time before you leave for work to have a talk?"

Magnate's brow furrowed and he glanced between the two of them.  "I... Not right now, actually.  I'm just here to pick up my lunch."

"I see."  Derelict glanced him over.  Lovey wondered what she saw this time.  "Lovey just finished your lunch, I believe."

Lovey squeaked out a sharp, "Nope!"

Derelict blinked at her.  "Nope?  Is that not what you were putting together just a moment ago?"

"Nope!"  Lovey took a step back and started to close the door.  "Sorry, Magny!  It's not ready yet.  I'll just bring it by the office later!"

Magnate put a hoof on the door to stop her.  "It's fine.  I can wait for you to finish it."

But this was her meal ticket!  The meal that was the ticket to getting to see him at lunch!  He couldn't just... just barge on in and take her ticket!  Shaking her head, Lovey put more of her weight against the door.  "You don't want to be late!"  With a flutter of her wings for extra oomph, the door clicked shut and she quickly flipped the lock.  "Toodles!"

"Lovey, just—"  A sigh.  "Fine, you win.  I'll... see you at lunch, I guess."

Lovey pressed her ear to the door to listen to his hoofsteps as they grew distant, smiling.  She would see him at lunch, no guessing necessary!

"I see."

Lovey blinked and looked over at Derelict.  "See what?"

"The lunch is an excuse to see him.  You're very invested in this relationship."  Derelict's brow raised.  "And yet he..."

Lovey swallowed, trepidation filling her all of a sudden.  But why?  "Huh?"

"He doesn't seem as invested."  Derelict started taking notes.  Notes of something.  Something Lovey wasn't sure she thought was fun anymore.  "I would like it if I could talk to him more than just in passing.  Your relationship is fascinating."

"Oh, uh, well, I'm glad!"  Her wings were clamped tightly to her sides and she glanced about.  As her heart started to race with nerves, she found herself searching for them—the lines that drifted through the air to remind her that love was real.

Thin lines of pink, red, and every shade in between faded into view despite the carefully selected decor.  Ponies searching for love, ponies in love... love, love, love.  Love was everywhere.  She had love!

Slowly, her gaze lowered to her chest.  Her chest that was barren and empty, as it had been her whole life.

She was certain she had love, she just... couldn't see it.


♥ ❤ ♥ ❤ ♥


As Lovey trotted along the busy sidewalk toward Eminence Tower, she hummed a happy little tune that kept her spirits up.  The brown paper bag was tucked under one wing, safe and sound.  

"Oof!"  Lovey grunted when she abruptly bumped into the pony in front of her.  "Sorry!"

She blinked a few times when she noticed the pony had stopped to stare.  She blinked again when she noticed that everypony around her had stopped moving, all of them staring.  When she followed their gazes, she gasped at the sight of the fanciest carriage she had ever seen.  It was super long—like it had been stretched out—and had four doors on each side!

Two posh-looking stallions were at the back of the carriage, their hind legs balanced on little steps and their forelegs hanging on to keep themselves upright and along for the ride.  One dropped down onto the street, a formal tuxedo contrasting with his greying coat, and he started toward the sidewalk.  The crowd parted to let him through as he approached her.  "Miss Lovey?"

Lovey's ears perked.  "Hi!  That's me!"

"Please, come with me.  Master Magnate wishes to speak with you."  He offered a hoof toward her.

"Huh?"  She tilted her head.  "Magny?  But I'm on my way to see him right now!"

With a soft chuckle, he shook his head.  "Not the young master, Miss Lovey.  His father."

Her lips curled into an 'o'.  "Well, I'm sorry, but you'll have to tell him I'm busy!  I'm taking Magny his lunch, you see.  It's our special time together during his busy, busy work day!"

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to allow that."  His hoof remained held out to her.  "Ponies do not typically turn down requests from Master Magnate.  The sooner you come with me, Miss, the sooner you may be on your way to see the young master."

Lovey hummed for a moment in thought.  Well, how long could a little chat take?  It'd be fine!  She beamed and started to prance forward, putting her hoof in his.  "Okay!  Let's go!"

The stallion led her to the carriage and opened one of the doors, then bowed.

"Thank you, Alfred," a deep, gravelly voice said from inside.

The hairs of Lovey's coat stood on end as a chill ran down her spine.  The voice was like Magnate's, but at the same time, nothing at all like it.  Like if Magnate had never smiled a day in his life.  Her heart wanted to run, but her hooves guided her inside.

The whole interior of the carriage was covered in a plush, dark purple velvet.  Seating ran along the sides in the spaces between the doors, and across from her were two ponies that just oozed power and authority.  Lovey suddenly felt very, very small.

Eyes that were just as cold as their ice blue color stared at her over a pair of glasses.  "It's nice to meet you, Miss Lovey," the stallion—Magnate's father, Magnate, she assumed—said.  He gestured at the seat across from him and his wife.  "Please, have a seat."

Lovey swallowed and quickly did so.  She felt so out of place, a bright pink mare surrounded by dark and muted colors.  Magnate was a deep brown that was almost black and had a light grey, perfectly smooth mane with sideburns that dipped low on his gaunt cheeks.  The mare at his side wore a silver gown that practically faded against her coat of pastel lavender.  Her blonde mane—just like Magny's!—had a few streaks of aging grey running through it.

The door closed and, after the sound of what Lovey gathered was Alfred climbing back onto the carriage, she felt the momentum of them starting forward.  She tried to glance out a window, but it was tinted so dark she could hardly see.  All she could make out was that they were indeed moving.  "Where are we going?  Didn't you just want to talk?"

Magnate steepled his hooves and nodded idly.  "I just don't like to sit in one place for too long.  You saw yourself how ponies reacted to our presence."  His brow raised.  "To the matter at hoof, however.  Miss Lovey, what are your intentions with our son?"

"Intentions?"  Her wings fluttered lightly, dropping the lunch bag.  "Oh, to live happily ever after, of course!"

"And what, pray tell, does that include?  You were hired by our daughter to find a suitable partner for Magnate.  Does matchmaking not pay enough for your liking?"

Lovey blinked a few times, her head tilting to one side.  "It paid enough for my liking plenty!  But I had to quit, because it required me to travel oh so much, and I would rather be here with Magny!"  She giggled.  "And happily ever after includes, well, a wedding someday, and maybe foals, and growing old together and rocking chairs and lemonade and fireflies!  What else?"

Magnate glanced at his wife, who shrugged and then smiled at Lovey.  "Dear," she said, her voice silky smooth, "I believe you are quite missing the point of this conversation."

"I believe so, too, Mrs. Magnate!"

"Please, my name is Affluence.  Only the stallions are Magnates."  She raised a hoof to clasp her cheek.  "You see, it looks quite suspicious for a mare to so suddenly attach herself to our son.  While we want a grandson to continue the family, we have no interest in a leech."

Lovey's nose scrunched up.  "A leech?  Oh, no, I'm not a leech!  I'm a pegasus, though I can see how you might be confused... sort of.  Not really."

The two of them looked at one another again.  Magnate's ears swiveled toward Lovey before he looked back at her.  "You mean for us to believe that you have an earnest interest in Magnate?"

"Well, it's true, so I guess I do expect it!"  She waved a hoof.  "But expect sounds so demanding.  How about hope?  Yes!  I hope you believe me!  Your son makes me happy, and I want to make him happy, too.  That's why I'm bringing him lunch!"

Magnate's gaze dipped to the brown paper bag.  "Is that so?"

Affluence put a hoof on her husband's foreleg and, when he glanced at her, she nodded.

"Mm."  He tapped his hooves together.  "We will be arriving at the manor soon.  If what you're saying is true, then we will find out shortly."  A brief smile quirked his lips.  "If not, then we will have to ask you to return to the duty for which you were originally hired."

Lovey's ears started to droop, along with her wings and her shoulders.  "But how can I do that?  I'm...  I'm the special somepony for Magny!"

Magnate leaned back and levitated a small glass filled with a caramel-colored liquid to his lips, taking a sip.  "We'll see."

"It's nothing personal, dear," Affluence said.  "We have to look out for our son's best interests, as well as our family's."

"Oh..."  Lovey nodded.  "I understand."

She didn't, but she wasn't going to say otherwise.  They seemed serious.  Did they really think she wasn't sincere?  How was she supposed to prove that she was?  How could she—

"Young Master!" Alfred's voice cried from outside, followed by a yelp of surprise.  The carriage came to a sudden halt and one of the doors was flung open by magic.

Magnate—her Magnate, not the older one—shoved his head into the carriage, a stern look on his face.  "Father!  Mother!  What have you done with—"  His eyes met hers and a relief lightened his features.  "—Lovey?"

"Hi!" she chirped, the feathers on her wings quivering with excitement.  "Are you done with work already?  Have we been in here that long?"

Magnate—the older one, not her Magnate—looked between them.  "Well, consider me surprised."

"He really came," Affluence said, her green eyes wide.

Her Magnate glared at them, then grabbed Lovey's hoof and gave it a tug.  "Come on, Lovey.  I'm taking you home."

"Oh.  Okay!"  She flashed a smile at Magnate's mother and father.  "It was nice to meet you, I think!"

They didn't get a word in before Magnate had practically dragged her out of the carriage and his magic slammed the door shut.  He let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head.  "What happened?  What did they do to you?  Did they say anything strange?"

Lovey giggled.  He was still holding her hoof!  Did he know that?  Oh, she wasn't going to remind him, definitely not!  "I don't think so!  I mean, your mother mistook me for a leech, and your father is kind of scary, but I'm okay!"  She tilted her head.  "How did you find me?"

A light flush crossed his cheeks and he focused his gaze sternly ahead as they walked down the sidewalk.  "I...  I just happened to be looking out the window.  I knew you were coming, so I stopped working to wait for you."

Her ears wiggled and it took everything she had not to hug him right then and there!  But he already looked pretty embarrassed, and he was still holding her hoof, and that was much better than a hug.  "Well, I'm okay!  I think they just want to be sure you're happy."

He snorted.  "If that's the impression you have after that, then I'm glad.  That means you didn't spend as much time with them as I feared."  He shook his head with a sigh.  "They—"

"Oh, no!"  Lovey stopped and jerked her head to look behind them at where the carriage had been.  "I forgot your lunch!"

"What?  I don't...  It's fine.  We're almost home, so we can just have lunch together.  I'll just..."  His tail flicked.  "I'll just work late tonight to make up for it."

She bit her lower lip.  He hated missing work, which meant that he had been really worried if he came running after her.  That was really sweet!  But now he was agitated.  So she just felt guilty now.

They walked the rest of the way to the apartment in silence while she pondered how to make it up to him and he was content to not talk.  Magnate undid the lock and they went inside, at which point he finally noticed their interlocked forehooves.  His face turned red and he quickly pulled his hoof away.  "S-Sorry."

"Aww, don't be sorry!"  She hopped forward to nuzzle her nose to his, giggling.  "I like holding hooves!  That's what couples, do, right?"

He turned away from her, the flush reaching his ears, and made his way into the kitchen.  "I, uh, guess so."

Lovey sat down at the table and watched him as he rummaged through the fridge.  "You'd guess correctly!  But, you shouldn't worry so much, you know?  Your parents were nice.  Kinda.  I mean, they weren't mean.  I don't think.  I didn't feel bullied?  I just felt a little confused."  Her ears drooped briefly.  "They just wanted to make sure I was your special somepony."  She perked back up.  "Which I am!  Totally!  Absolutely!"

"Right," he replied absently, his attention focused more on musing over lunch than responding.  He didn't have much in his fridge, did he?  He just had sandwiches a lot.  He really liked sandwiches.

Their ears flicked simultaneously at the sound of knocks in a specific rhythm that made Lovey's heart jump with excitement.

Magnate leaned back to peer at the door, confusion in his furrowed brow.  "Who—"

"Oh!  I almost forgot!"  Lovey hopped down from the chair.  "My parents wanted to meet you!  I gave them your address because when I wrote the letter, I thought I was going to live here."  She threw the door open and smiled brightly at the ponies standing in front of her.  "Hi, Mom!  Hi, Dad!"
> To Know All About You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Magnate made it a few steps out of the kitchen before he saw them.  Lovey's parents.  They were...

... ordinary.  Or, rather, they looked like ordinary pegasi.  Her father looked like the sun reaching around a storm cloud: a dark grey coat highlighted by a soft golden yellow mane, pastel orange streaks illuminating like rays of light.  At his side was the mother, who was small and dainty.  She was the sky that surrounded him, a combination of light blues and equally light yellows.

Magnate drew himself to his full height and started to approach them.  "Hello.  It's nice to—"

"Hi, Dad!  Hi, Mom!"

What?

Magnate froze in place as he watched two more pegasi walk in after exchanging hugs with Lovey.  Slowly, he looked between the four faces now staring at him, all smiling.

Mom, Dad, Dad, and Mom.

Four ponies.

Did Lovey know what parents were?  Did he need to buy her a dictionary?  She had gone to school, hadn't she?  No, she had to know what parents were.  She had her faults, but she wasn't stupid.  But why were there four of them?

There was a perfectly rational explanation for this.  He just had to find it.  Perhaps she simply had four parents, all in an open relationship.  It was uncommon, yes, but it still happened.  That would make sense.

One of the mares, the one who had entered second and was mostly white and grey with a hint of pale blue, burst into a fit of giggles.  "Okay, Suns, I think it's clear I won the bet."

The first mother—'Suns', apparently—rolled her eyes.  "No, you said he'd say polygamy.  He hasn't said anything yet."

"Ahh!"  The grey-and-blue mother glared.  "You ruined it!  Now he'll definitely not say polygamy.  That's cheating!"

Magnate gawked.  All right, so that ruled out polygamy.  But what did that leave?  Perhaps they were parents and caretakers.  They looked ordinary, but they could be wealthy enough to afford a caretaker.  Lovey likely needed as many eyes on her as possible as a foal.  Honestly, she still needed them on her even as an adult.

"It's quite all right, Magnate," the first father said, stepping forward and putting a hoof on his shoulder.  "You may ask."

"How—"  Magnate looked up at him.  "Why—"  He looked at the other three.  "What?"

All four of them fell into a chorus of chuckling or giggling, fathers and mothers respectively.  The stallion who still held Magnate's shoulder looked over at Lovey.  "Sweetheart, why don't you make us all some snacks while we sit and get acquainted?"

"Okay!"  Lovey pranced into the kitchen, her wings fluttering with excitement while she started to rummage through the cabinets.

Magnate watched all four parents squeeze themselves onto the couch really only meant for three ponies.  Still dumbfounded, he took a seat on the floor opposite of them on the other side of the coffee table.

"It's simple, really," the blue-and-yellow mother known as Suns said, taking the hoof of the father she didn't enter with.  "We're Lovey's birth parents.  I'm Sun Shower and this is Snow Squall.  We separated—"  She paused to switch hooves from holding one father's to the other's.  "—and remarried.  I'm now married to Arcus and Squall is now married to Diamond Dust."

Magnate blinked slowly.  Divorce?  He knew that ponies got divorced, but… the idea of it was almost frightening.  To marry a pony and then have that marriage fall apart.  He looked between the four faces staring at him.  They all seemed perfectly fine with it, as though it happened to them every day.

"Why... ?"  It was the only word Magnate could manage.

The stepfather, Arcus, cleared his throat.  "When Lovey was a filly, and she and her mother were shopping at my store, she suddenly came up to me—I was working there that day, you see—and said, 'You're my mom's soulmate!'"

"I was mortified," Sun Shower continued.  "Especially when I looked at the stallion she was talking to and went weak in the knees.  I felt so ashamed of myself!"

"They came home and Lovey told me, 'Dad, you need to let Mom be with her soulmate so she can be happy.'"  Squall chuckled.  "Suns and I fought a lot.  We were sweethearts since elementary school and everypony said we would get married.  So, we did.  We weren't terrible together, but we weren't great, either."

Sun Shower smiled and shook her head.  "Lovey took matters into her own hooves.  She disappeared one day and scared our tails stiff.  Then she just walked in the door with a stallion and a mare behind her, and announced we had to all sit and talk."

"We did," the stepmother, Diamond Dust, took over.  "Although it was more like fighting at first.  She just sat there smiling, this strange little pink filly that had stopped me on the street and said my love line was all tangled, but that she could straighten it.  I had no idea what that meant, of course, but she kept insisting I had to follow her."

"Then it came out that they weren't happy," Arcus said.  "And we all sat in silence.  Very awkward silence."

Lovey came into view between them all, setting a plate of crackers on the coffee table.  "So I told them to start over like they were all strangers and Mom and Dad hit it off really well.  Dad and Mom took a little longer because Dad was distracted by Mom talking to Dad, but he eventually came around, too."

The four parents nodded in agreement.

Magnate looked between them all with wide eyes.  "You..."  He looked at the smiling Lovey.  "You broke up your parents' marriage?!"

Lovey beamed at him.  "It was how I got my cutie mark!"

Unbelievable.  Unfathomable.  Inconceivable!

Sun Shower giggled, patting her husband on his foreleg.  "It's all right, Magnate.  Nopony has any hard feelings about it.  Squall and I just weren't compatible. Arcus and I are, as are Diamond and Squall.  If it weren't for Lovey, we probably would have divorced anyway once she was older, and not amicably.  This way, we're all still friends, and all four of us raised Lovey in a truly loving environment."

Lovey sat beside him, beaming up at him.  "So when we get married, you can have four more parents!  Won't that be wonderful?!"

Magnate choked.  Her mothers squealed.

"He proposed?!"  Diamond clapped her hooves.  "Lovey, you didn't tell us that!"

Lovey giggled and fluttered her wings.  "Oh, no, but he will eventually.  He's my soulmate, after all.  He—Magny?"

He looked at her and realized they were no longer beside one another.  He had stood up and was in the middle of walking away.  When had that happened?

Oh, probably about the time she talked about marriage and his head felt like it was going to cave in.  That was likely when the desire to run away spurred him into fleeing the room.

"I need a moment," he said, the act of speaking alone bringing the sensation that he might be sick.  "All right?  Okay."

Before she could respond, he stepped into his bedroom and shut the door behind him.

Peace and quiet.  He needed some peace and quiet to process everything.  Lovey had gotten her cutie mark in breaking up a marriage, and now she was talking about getting married?  Didn't the fragility of her parents' marriage frighten her at all?  What if that was their destiny?

The room started to spin and he stumbled over to the bed to lie down.  He felt like he was perpetually falling.  Too many questions and fears were racing through his mind.

"Squall and I just weren't compatible."

What if he and Lovey 'just weren't compatible'?

"Lovey," one of the mothers' voices scolded loud enough for him to hear, "you're going to scare the poor stallion.  Of all ponies, you know a love line is fragile!"

There was a pause of hesitancy before Lovey responded, "I know, but I can't help it.  I love him."

Love.  She used that word so easily.  What did it even mean?

One of the fathers cleared his throat.  "Sweetheart, do you love him... or are you just following your love line?"

Magnate sat up, ears facing forward, desperate to pick up her response.  His heart raced in his chest when her voice rang loud and clear.

"I still can't see my love line, Dad!"  Her voice cracked.  Was she crying?  "I just know that he's the one.  Isn't that love?"

For a moment, he heard nothing but a sharp, high-pitched ring in the empty silence.  She had turned his life upside-down based on what... a hunch?  A guess?

They weren't compatible at all.  He just wanted to go back to his quiet life where the word 'love' was something he scoffed at.  This feeling of uncertainty in his chest that drove him practically mad wasn't love.  How could it be?  She said love was wonderful.  He felt dreadful.

There was no love line.  Nothing tied them together.  Nothing kept her by his side, not really.  She was just so desperate for love that she was clinging to him, a stallion who probably wasn't right for her.

Knock, knock.  "Magny?"

He gasped for air, uncertain of when he had stopped breathing.  "Yes?"

"Can I come in?"  He heard the nervous shuffling of her hooves.

They needed to talk.  Desperately.  "Yes, please."  He smoothed out his coat and straightened up, trying to look calm despite how his heart pounded in his chest.

The door creaked open and Lovey stuck her head in.  Her ears were flat against her mane and a truly apologetic look was in her eyes.  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get carried away..."

"It's fine."  He waved a hoof to urge her closer.  "Come, sit down.  I think we need to talk."

Tentatively, Lovey walked over and sat down on the bed beside him.  "Yeah?"

Magnate sighed.  How was he going to do this?  He didn't want to break up with her, but he couldn't continue like this.  He just needed to...  "... start over."

"Huh?"  Lovey glanced at him, shifting uncomfortably.  "Start over?"

"Yeah."  He slumped forward to stare down at his lap, where his forehooves twiddled with nerves and a strange sense of melancholy.  "You can't see your love line, anyway, right?"

She didn't respond.  It didn't matter; he'd already heard her say it herself.

"Then there's nothing special about our relationship.  We're not special forever someponies, or whatever you call it.  We're just two ponies...  So stop rushing things because you think we're meant to be together."  His ears folded back.  "I don't want you to force things between us and regret it later when you realize I'm not the kind of stallion you should be with."

Lovey just sat there a moment, her expression everything he didn't want to see.  Her eyes were glossed over, her ears drooped low, and her chin trembled.  "I..."  She swallowed.  "I think... the problem isn't you, is it?"  Slowly, she slid off the bed and turned away from him.  "The problem is I'm not the kind of mare you want to be with."

Magnate quickly shook his head.  "Lovey, no, that's not—"

"It's okay."  She walked to the door with her wings drooped so low that the tips trailed along the floor.  "I understand...  Why would I be?  I'm sorry, I'll go.  I'm sorry."

Once the uncertain pounding of his heart calmed just enough for him to think straight, he hurried off the bed and after her.  When he crossed the threshold into the living room, however, the only ponies he saw were Lovey's parents, all of them looking at the open front door.

"You're too slow," Squall said, not looking at Magnate.  "She's already gone."

"What?"  Magnate glanced between the stallion and the door, then trotted forward.  "I'll go get her, I'll—"

A wing extended and blocked his path.  Diamond Dust, who sat at the end of the couch near him, shook her head.  "No, she'll need some space, trust me.  She doesn't handle sad situations very well."  She laughed softly.  "Actually, I suppose that's our fault.  We tried to shelter her from every bit of sadness we could.  Including a normally awful situation like divorce!"

Magnate glared down at the wing, but otherwise remained where he was.  "I didn't mean for her to leave.  I just wanted her to—"

"Stop being so overbearing?"  Sun Shower clicked her tongue.  "That's also our fault.  We encouraged her to express herself freely."

"Oh, so she's not to take any responsibility for her actions, then?  She's not at fault?" Magnate snapped, then winced.  "No, that's not what I mean at all."

Arcus chuckled, nudging Sun with his elbow.  "He's feisty.  I like him."

The parents broke into a chorus of giggles and snickers.  It was like a group of foals laughing over a dirty joke.  Magnate rolled his eyes and started for the door again.  "I'm going to go find Lovey."

"Good luck with that!"  Squall waved a hoof.

"Especially since you can't fly," Sun teased.

Diamond sighed.  "There's no telling which direction she went, either."

"And—"

"Would the four of you kindly keep your mouths shut?!"  Magnate turned on his heel to unleash his glare on them, emotions he didn't quite understand surging in his chest.  "How can you be so carefree at a time like this?!  She completely misunderstood me!"

The lighthearted feeling in the air dropped into a stifling tension as their expressions grew serious.  Forelegs crossed over chests, ears flicked back, and brows arched.

"Did she?"  Sun tilted her head.  "Well, what did you say?"

"I said that..."  Magnate's glare lightened.  "All I said was..."  The rigidity of his muscles eased.  "Just that... I just want to start over.  All of this love line nonsense has her rushing things straight into absurd notions like moving in together and marriage.  Celestia, it hasn't even been two weeks since we met!  I'm not ready for everything she wants!  What pony in their right mind could be?!"

They glanced at one another, then each nodded.  "Well," Squall started.

"Then it sounds like you two aren't right for each other after all," Diamond continued.

"And maybe you should just let her go," Arcus finished.

"What?"  Magnate quickly shook his head.  "I don't want that!  Why are you acting like I'm the bad pony here?!  I simply want her to stop being so... so..."

"So Lovey?"  Sun waved a hoof, giggling.  "Then maybe you'd be better off with a mare who isn't Lovey, because I don't think she can stop being who she is.  Just like you can't stop being who you are."

Magnate's shoulders slumped and he dropped down to sit on the floor.  "I..."  He trailed off, at a loss for words.  But he could stop being who he was... couldn't he?  He could put up with her heart notes and deal with her overbearing affection and —

His ears folded back.  But he didn't want to.  He'd rather just sit and read the newspaper together in peace and quiet.  She couldn't do that.  Perhaps that made him the bad pony after all.

Diamond cleared her throat and slipped off the couch, the other parents following her lead.  "Well, this has been delightfully awkward!  It was nice to meet you, Magnate."

"Best of luck!" Sun chimed as they made their way for the door.

The last one in the line was Arcus, who stopped to put a hoof on Magnate's shoulder.  "You'll figure things out.  Lovey can come on strong, but it's because she just cares too darn much.  For what it's worth, I think you're just what she needs.  Either way, good luck, son."

Magnate winced when the door clicked shut behind Arcus and he was, at last, alone.  He didn't like being alone.  Not anymore.  Not since Lovey showed him there was another way.

What was he supposed to do?  He couldn't live with Lovey, but he couldn't live without her, either.  He had been trying his hardest to be more affectionate and less 'himself'.  Why was it so much to ask for her to be less affectionate and less 'herself'?
> My Cup of Tea
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Applicant Name: _________

Lovey smiled.  Oh!  This was an easy one.  She knew her name.  Lovey Dovey.

Any Prior Experience?   yes   no

Her nose scrunched up and she tapped the pen to her chin.  Now this was a tricky question.  How was 'prior experience' defined?  She had orchestrated a rain shower once for a couple to force them to hide under a tree where they shared their first kiss, but that was a special occasion.  And all she had really done to orchestrate it was beg a weatherpony to do it for her.  But she had been a part of it, so did that count as experience?

With a shrug, she circled yes.

Specialties: ____________________________________

Oh, this was even easier than her name.  She had lots of specialties—so many, in fact, that she had to extend the line to fit them all.  Love at first sight, rivalry turned into love, unrequited love, young love, old love, love confessions...  Love!

Preferred Weather Duty: _________

What types of weather duty even were there?  She had never paid much attention in the years of school she had gone to, and once she got her cutie mark, she set off to start following love lines across Equestria.  She knew there was coordinating, which was sort of like matchmaking, wasn't it?

She furrowed her brow.  But she was trying to quit matchmaking, so maybe weather coordination wasn't for her.  She wasn't very good with clouds, but it was never too late to learn something new!  Oh, but if she had a choice, then she wanted to be in charge of...  Happy weather!

Availability: _________

Lovey almost whimpered.  Oh, no wonder ponies complained about finding jobs.  She had no idea the applications for them were so nosy.  It was a good question, though.  Was she available?  Magnate had sort of broken up with her.  Reluctantly, she wrote down the best truth she could offer:  It's complicated.

Okay.  That was it.  This wasn't so hard after all!  Just answer a few questions and she had a job?  She slipped out of the lounge seat and walked up to the receptionist at the front desk.  "I'm done!"

"Great!"  The mare took the clipboard and glanced it over.  Then there was a long pause.  She glanced up, back down, up, and down.  "Well, okay then!  I'll give this to Mr. Weatherhead.  He'll be out once he looks this over.  Thanks for your patience!"

While the receptionist trotted off down the hall behind her desk and into an office, Lovey returned to her seat with a small hum.  She didn't know what song it was that she was humming, but it was nice to listen to.  The tune was slow, soft, and... sad.  Her wings drooped as she went silent.

A head poked out of the office and stared at her.  She lit back up, raising a hoof to wave at him, but he disappeared before she could get her hoof in the air.  Just as she started to lower it to her lap, his head slid back into view, along with a hoof holding a clipboard.  He glanced down at it, looked back at her, at it, at her, and then shrugged.

"Miss Dovey?" he called.

"That's me!"  She jumped out of the seat and skipped across the room toward him, her wings fluttering.  "How are you?"

He smiled and gestured her inside his office, where he took a seat behind the desk.  A wooden nameplate informed her that his full name was Weatherhead Honcho.  "Fine, fine.  Lovely weather today.  A little overcast, but we can't let it get too hot, now can we?"

Lovey just nodded as she sat down.  Honestly, she didn't know a thing about weather, except that clouds were involved and sometimes it was sunny and sometimes it rained.

"Now, I see that your availability is listed as complicated.  That's fine.  We can work around that!  Are mornings or evenings better for you?"

Lovey tilted her head.  "Huh?  Well, I suppose mornings are best, so I can..."  She trailed, her gaze lowering.  Can what?  Spend time with Magnate?  But they were starting over.  What did that even mean?  She straightened up and smiled.  "I can work with whatever, Mr. Honcho!"

He chuckled and waved a hoof.  "Weatherhead is fine.  Honcho sounds like I should be running a cart repair shop or somethin'."  He dropped the hoof down, tapping her application form.  "So, you can work whenever, and you like to work with—"  His gaze flicked to her cutie mark.  "—love."  After a pause, he cleared his throat.  "Well, we can work with that.  The central park and downtown area are prime locations to find lovers on dates.  That work for you?"

Just in case the excited fluttering of her wings wasn't enough of an indication, she eagerly nodded and chirped, "Perfect!"

"Great!  Well, if you don't got anywhere to be, I just saw Snowdrift walk by outside.  He should be just about ready to start his shift, so we can flag him down and you can shadow him."

Lovey jumped into the air and clapped her hooves.  "Oh, I'm not busy at all!  I'm completely free!  Shadowing sounds like fun!"

With a small huff, Weatherhead pushed himself out of his seat.  "I'll get the paperwork sorted out later, then.  The sooner you can get trained, the better."  As he went out the door and rounded the corner, he hollered, "Snowdrift!  Wait up a sec!"

The light blue stallion that was halfway down the hall stopped and looked over his shoulder, the white fluffy curls of his mane bouncing from the motion.  "Huh?"  He turned around with a bright smile.  "What's up, boss?"

"We've got a new potential recruit."  Weatherhead nodded toward Lovey, who hovered beside him, her excitement almost palpable.  "Mind letting her tag along while you work your shift today?"

"Hi!"  Lovey waved as she lowered to the ground.  "I'm the new recruit!  Potentially, I guess.  I mean, I'm definitely me, and I'm definitely new, and I—"

Weatherhead cleared his throat.  "So, Miss Lovey, if you'll just tag along with Snowdrift for today?"

Lovey bounded forward to stand beside the pegasus in question.  "Yes, sir, boss, sir!"

Snowdrift gave Weatherhead a small salute before turning his smile on Lovey.  "New recruit, huh?  Well, let's see what you've got!  How about some cloud clearing?  Today's supposed to be nice and sunny with only minor cloud coverage, but those clouds are starting to gang up over central park.  Ready to hit the skies?"

"Okay!"  Lovey followed him to a locker room, where he grabbed two pairs of goggles—one for himself and the other for her.  "So how does cloud clearing work?"

Snowdrift shot her a sideways glance.  After a moment, he burst into laughter and waved a hoof in her direction.  "Right!  'How does cloud clearing work?'  Good one!  We're going to have lots of fun together, I can tell that already!"

Lovey laughed, though she didn't know why.  That didn't answer her question at all.  But he seemed to think it was funny, and he was the professional weatherpony, so it had to be funny!

Or maybe what he thought was so funny was how the goggles didn't fit, not even a little bit.  She tried fiddling with the strap, but trying to follow him, wave at ponies they passed, and fiddle all at the same time just wasn't working.  She settled on aligning the goggles with her eyes and tilting her head back to keep them in place.

Just outside a door was a wide platform that—as Lovey glanced over the edge to confirm—was two stories up.  That seemed to check out with the flight of stairs they had climbed.  Snowdrift stood at one end, giving his wings a few flaps to stretch out the muscles.

"Ready?"

Lovey nodded.  "Yes, sir!"  She fluttered her wings, tossed her head back, and ran alongside him to get a running start on taking flight.

"Always make sure to stay aware of your surroundings," Snowdrift hollered over the wind whipping past them.  All the tall buildings lined up in neat rows made for perfect little wind alleys!  "Stay high to avoid possible collisions! It can be hard to see around all the corners."

"That makes sense!"  Lovey followed him up above the skyscrapers.  Once they were high enough, the wind settled down and they eased into a casual glide.  She put one hoof on the goggles to keep them in place so she could look down at the view below.

The city was a bustling mass of ponies, stone, metal, and glass.  Green spaces were few and far between.  It was nothing like Ponyville, which was free and open and more nature than civilization...

"All right, recruit!"  Snowdrift flared his wings to slow to a halt.  "Show me what you got.  Clear those clouds and get that sun shining!"

Lovey nodded.  "Okay!"  It couldn't be that hard, could it?  Pegasi did it all the time!  She just had to show the cloud who was the boss.  And she was the boss!

She locked her sights on a nearby cloud and flew toward it, forehooves extended to deliver the dispersing blow.  Unfortunately, when she struck it, her hooves merely sunk in to the fluffy material.

"Uh..."  Snowdrift flapped around her in a circle.  "Uh, that's not right.  Try again?"

Lovey's ears drooped as she tried to pull her hooves out of the slowly darkening cloud, but to no avail.  Was she stuck?  She was stuck!  And why was the cloud turning dark?  And starting to rain?

The soft white color had turned a dark, depressing grey, and rain poured down in a steady shower.  That was about the only thing she remembered about clouds—they were emotional sponges and reflected the mood of the pegasus touching them.  But that would mean she was sad.  She wasn't sad!

"I'm fine," she mumbled under her breath.  The cloud rumbled.  "I'm fine!"  She blinked a few times as her eyes tried to mimic the cloud with tears.  "I'm fine!"

"No, no, no," Snowdrift lightly chided, flying closer to get a better look.  "We want a sunny day, Lovey."

She slumped forward, her hooves sinking deeper into the cold fluff.  "I know Sunny Day…"

"Are you stupid?" a voice asked from behind her.  "Stop touching that cloud.  You're obviously too sad to be trusted with one."

Lovey blinked and craned her neck to spy a sage pegasus resting on a cloud, his ears pinned back.  "Huh?"

"Rossby!  I thought you were going to work on that attitude?"  Snowdrift set one hoof on his hip, the other giving a scolding shake.  Then, with a sigh, he looked back at Lovey.  "But he does have a point.  Do you want to talk about it?  I mean, not to pry, but you're raining."

"I'm fine!"  She winced as the downpour grew heavier, just like the strange weight on her chest she was trying to ignore.

Rossby groaned, his wings flapping twice to send him and his cloud drifting closer.  "Okay, since you obviously don't know how clouds work and Snowdrift isn't being any help, I'll do it."  He pushed his glasses up and stared at her.  "Stop feeling."

Lovey sniffled.  "Stop... feeling?"

"Yeah.  Just clear your mind, or whatever.  Stop thinking about whatever it is that's making you sad and just stop feeling."

"But I'm not—"  The cloud rumbled again, and she sighed.  "I'll try."

She closed her eyes and tried to imagine nothing.  She tried not to think about Magnate, or how she had messed up, or how she didn't know what she was going to do.

Kra-kum!  Lightning shot out from the side of the cloud, startling a squeak of surprise from her and one of the two stallions.

No, no.  Don't think about not thinking about those things.  That was just thinking about them!  She needed to stop thinking.  Just...

... be...

... empty.

Silence filled her ringing ears.  Slowly, Lovey opened one eye to see her hooves free of the cloud, which had returned to being white and happy-go-lucky without her influence.  She looked away from it and caught sight of a stray love line.  Just like that, the switch flipped on.  They were everywhere: red and pink lines all zipping through the air, each one wanting her attention.

Snowdrift clapped his hooves, but Rossby just hopped over to land on the cloud so his face was near hers and asked, "What are you doing here?"

A knotted line trailed behind him, leading off into the distance.

Lovey tried to smile and tear her gaze away from it.  A knot?  She could fix that.  It was wrapped around itself and wound tightly, but—no.  She had to forget about love lines.  "I-I'm learning to be a weatherpony."

Rossby huffed.  "Well, you suck at it."

"Rossby!"  Snowdrift reached out to grab him by the ear, ignoring the yelp of surprise.  "Okay, young stallion, you're coming with me.  I've overlooked your behavior since you just transferred here last week, but enough's enough!  Time for a formal complaint!"  He tugged Rossby closer and flashed a smile at Lovey.  "Sorry, can you wait here?  I'll be right back!  Maybe practice your cloud clearing some while I'm gone?"

"Oh, sure!"  She punched the cloud with one hoof, keeping a smile on her face as it started to turn grey.  "Don't worry about me!"

As they flew away, Lovey sighed, letting her mind clear so her hoof slid free of the cloud's grasp.  Rossby's love line would be fine.  It could untangle on its own, or he'd just find somepony else.

Her ears drooped at the thought.  Magnate could just find somepony else...

Kra-kum!

Lovey jerked away from the cloud she hadn't realized she'd been leaning against.  This was no good.  She was fine!  Tears started to well up in her eyes and she did the only thing she could think of: she fled.

She didn't want to keep having the clouds remind her of how she was trying to not feel!  She didn't want other, more experienced weatherponies judging her.  She just wanted to climb into bed and sleep off this awful, heavy feeling of... something.  She didn't even know what it was.

There were too many ponies crowding the entrance to the apartment complex, so she flew up to her kitchen window and peered inside.  Derelict was right in front of her, eyes wide in surprise, a knife and an apple frozen in her magic.

Lovey smiled.  "Can I come in, pretty please?"

Derelict blinked a few times as her magic undid the latch and lifted the window up.  "Well, this is a surprise.  I thought you were starting your new job today?"

"I was."  Lovey grunted some as she twisted herself around, trying to find an angle where her shoulders would fit through the narrow hole.  "I was until—oof!"  Angle found!  She tumbled into the sink, legs and wings sprawled in every direction.  "I was until I wasn't.  Maybe I will tomorrow, though."

Derelict tilted her head to the side.  The knife resumed its work of slicing the apple.  "Are you all right?"

Lovey nodded and righted herself, hopping down to the floor.  "I'm fine!  I've had worse tumbles before."

"I mean, how are you feeling?"  Derelict took a bite of one slice, staring at Lovey.  She was seeing again, wasn't she?  She always saw.  Sometimes, Lovey thought maybe she saw too much.  "You seem... off."

Off.  Was that how she was feeling?  Off sounded right.  Yes, she was off, but it was okay.  She'd been called off all her life.  She shrugged and repeated, "I'm fine."

Derelict hummed for a moment, tapping the knife's handle to her chin.  "Actually, I believe off isn't quite what I'm trying to convey.  You seem less pink than normal, which is a difficult metric to quantify, considering all of you is pink.  But, there it is.  You seem less pink."

Lovey glanced down at herself.  She seemed just as pink as she was the day before.  A light frown formed on her lips as irritation seeped into her voice.  "I'm fine."

"In my experience, when a pony says they're 'fine', they mean the exact opposite."

That bit of irritation erupted and sent a burning sensation through her blood.  Her wings flared out as she yelled in a way she didn't even know she was capable of, "Would you stop it?!  I said I'm fine, and I don't want to talk about it!"

Derelict raised one brow and just stared.

Lovey slapped a hoof over her mouth, the fire snuffed in an instant by overwhelming surprise and regret.  "Derelict, I—"  Her ears folded back.  "I'm so sorry, that's not like me!"

"I'm aware."  Derelict rolled her shoulders in a shrug and offered one of the slices of apple.  "Are you hungry?"

Tears welled up and one fell down her cheek.  She had yelled!  Lovey had yelled!  That was an absolutely un-Lovey thing to do!  "I'm—"  She sniffled and jumped into the air, zipping out the kitchen, through the living room, and into her bedroom.  "I'm sorry!"

The door shut behind her, and Lovey gasped for air.  A small tremble shook her wings as clenched her eyes shut and tried to clear her mind.  If she could just stop feeling, like Rossby said, then maybe...

A weird sensation drifted from her ears and down her spine, almost as though she were losing all sensation of hot and cold, leaving her feeling numb.

Maybe, without feeling so much, she'd be a better pony.  The kind of pony that didn't make clouds cry.
> Haven't You Noticed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The apartment was quiet.

Magnate sat on the couch, staring at the door.  He knew he needed to leave for work so he'd be at his desk on time, but his body wouldn't move.  It had been three days since he last saw Lovey.  Whenever he went to her apartment upstairs, he would either get no response or her roommate.  Never her.

She apparently had a job now.  The roommate, Derelict, wouldn't tell him anything more than that.  "Doctor-patient confidentiality," she had called it.

It would be nice if she'd burst in unannounced and uninvited like she used to, if things would just go back to normal.  He wanted to talk about the things he had said, though he wasn't sorry—he meant them, after all.  He hadn't intended for her to just disappear from his life, however.  All he wanted was for her to slow down and think rationally about their relationship.

He could hear the hoofsteps above his head of somepony moving around.  He could hear muted conversations through the walls.  He could hear his own heart beating in his chest.  But he didn't hear anypony outside his door.

With a sigh, he gathered his briefcase and newspaper, straightened his tie, and headed out.  There was nopony to wish him a good day at work.  For so many years, that was how it had always been.  Ever since he moved out of his parents' manor, he had always been alone; and even when he lived there, loneliness pervaded most of his days.

His only friends growing up had been a hoofful of servants who were kind to him.  The servants' foals were too subservient to him to treat him as anything but the 'Young Master'.  He never asked to be the son of a wealthy, influential pony.  He wanted respect shown to him to be earned by his own means and efforts, so he worked.  Tirelessly.  Endlessly.  His coworkers respected him for what he did, not whose son he was.

He would get a promotion, then another, and another until he was sitting at the top.  On his own.  By himself.  Nopony would whisper behind his back about his father getting him anything.

Love had never been part of that vision of the future.

Magnate stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and looked up at the sky.  What was love?  Lovey was the one who had brought the word into his life. Could he actually love her when he didn't know what love was?

Love is... wonderful, never having to be alone again.

A sudden tightness clenched his chest.  Ah, right.  She had explained it to him, hadn't she?  He had already reached the conclusion that he had feelings for her after that whirlwind of a week.  He liked her.  Perhaps he'd grow to love her.  He just needed time to understand it.  Why couldn't she understand that?

"Oh!" a voice squeaked as something pink bumped into his chest.  "I'm sorry!"

Magnate looked down, then blinked a few times.  "Lovey?"

The mare who was definitely, most certainly Lovey looked up at him without recognition in her eyes.  "Huh?  How do you know my name?"

He paused to look her over.  Light pink coat.  Three-toned pink mane.  Pink eyes.  Hearts all over her flank and trailing down her thigh.  The colors seemed a little duller than he remembered, but the sun wasn't fully above the horizon yet.  Still, there was no mistaking her for anypony else.

"I'm—" he started, pausing hesitantly, then continuing, "I'm sorry.  Do you have a twin?"

"Nope!  I'm an only child."  Her wings fluttered at her sides.  "What about you?"

His brow started to furrow.  Had he upset her so much that she developed amnesia?  Was that even a possibility?  "I have a sister.  You know that.  You've met her."

Lovey shook her head.  "I haven't!  We've only met just now, as two strangers who know nothing about love lines."  She gave an exaggerated wink.

"Oh."  So this was how she planned to do it.  Meet again as complete strangers?  Start over from scratch?  Forget the time they had spent together and fall in love naturally, like two normal ponies?

Slowly, Magnate raised a hoof to rub his right temple.  But if they had never met before, he would just walk right past her.  She would leave no impression on his life from an everyday encounter like this.  He would continue on his way to work and never think about her again.

His heart started to sink.  That was why they were incompatible.  She wanted love at first sight.  She needed a romantic stallion.  She deserved better than him.  For his sake, she was trying to be somepony dull and ordinary.  She was normally such a bright beacon of everything that was good in Equestria, and because of him, she was pulling herself down.

He needed to let her go.

"I see."  He avoided her gaze and pushed past her.  "Then have a good day."

There was a moment of hesitation before Lovey called after him, "O-Okay!  You, too!"

And that was it.  That was their first meeting as two normal ponies.  She would be without fireworks, and he would be without her.

This was the way things were meant to play out.  After all, she had said it herself—she couldn't see her own love line.  She was trapped in a delusion that they were compatible, but he could never be the stallion she needed.

...

The office was quiet.

Lunch had come and gone, and not a single interruption had occurred.  No surprise visits from Lovey bringing him a home-cooked meal.  No embarrassments from his coworkers trying to drag information about him out of her.

Magnate sighed.  How many times was he going to have to tell himself it was for the best before he could breathe normally again?

"Magnate?"  That stallion who was always pestering him was at his door, leaning in.  Real Deal?  That seemed close enough.  "Have a moment for a quick chat?"

Warily eyeing him, Magnate waved a hoof to gesture him inside.  "What is it?"

Real Deal shut the door behind him and the gentle, amicable demeanor faded away.  "So, what happened?"

"To what are you referring?"  Magnate folded his hooves on his desk and kept his expression even despite the agitation tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Your mare hasn't shown up the past few days.  Did you two get in a fight?"

Magnate released a sigh through clenched teeth.  "I don't discuss personal matters during business hours."

Real Deal snorted and rolled his eyes.  "Wow.  I don't know what I expected.  I was happy for you at first, you know?  I've been working with you for over ten years and I'm pretty sure you don't even know my name."

There was nothing to say to that.  Magnate merely sat there, staring, waiting for the point.

"I can't imagine what it's like to be you."  Real Deal shook his head and put a hoof on the door handle, pausing to look over his shoulder.  "If a pony like her can't make you happy, then what will?"

With that, Real Deal left the office.  The door shut behind him.  Magnate didn't move for a while.  His chest hurt, but he still had work to do.  He wanted to cry for some strange reason, but his office wasn't private.  Everypony could see him.  He had to sit there and hold everything in.

Real Deal—or whatever his name was—wasn't wrong.  Lovey was the happiest pony he had ever met.

No, he was at work.  He needed to work.  Sitting still wasn't moving forward.

One of his desk drawers slid open under the guidance of his magic and he reached in to retrieve a notepad, but instead his hoof hit a bunch of loose papers.  His heart seized up with realization before his gaze saw what they were.

Lovey's notes.  Little hoofwritten, heart-shaped notes of different happy colors that she had somehow smuggled into his office and hid everywhere.

Love you!

Work hard!

Don't give up!

You're my hero!

At that, it felt like something broke inside him.  His chest burned, his breathing grew ragged, and his eyes stung with tears.

You're my hero! he reread.

If only.  Heroes didn't make mares cry.

Why did he hurt so much?  Why was it so hard to breathe?  Was he having a heart attack?

He slammed the drawer shut and stood abruptly, his magic just barely grabbing his suitcase and paperwork before he marched out the door.  If he was going to have a heart attack, he was going to do it in the privacy of his own home.

His head pounded and ached more than any migraine he'd suffered before.  What was he doing?  Why was he pushing her away?  He didn't want her to be free.  It was selfish and cruel, but he needed her in his life.

She had already engrained herself so much into him.  The whole walk home was filled with memories of her.

There was the coffee stand he visited every morning where she had accosted him for an interview.  What had those silly questions been?  Mare, stallion, either, neither, or undecided?  Something like that, and she had marked him down as undecided.  He almost laughed, but he was afraid it might draw attention to him more than a half-crying stallion carrying scattered papers and an open briefcase already did.

He spotted the bar where she had gotten drunk on a fruity little drink and flopped about like an octopus.  That was when he had to take her home and she said such sad things.

"I've never been in love," she'd said.  "I know how terrible it feels to be lonely."

What a strange mare she was.  How could somepony so full of life and sunshine be burdened by sadness?  How could the pink nightmare know anything but happiness?

She had made him laugh.  She had made him frustrated.  She had stirred all sorts of feelings in him that he had never felt before, and at first, they had scared him.  Now, he missed them.  He missed her.  He finally understood how terrible it felt to be lonely.

Magnate paused outside the door, the door she could somehow open by singing a song in her heart.  She had shown back up with all of her things to move in unexpectedly, unannounced.  Any reasonable pony would be put off by that, right?  He wasn't a bad pony for wanting her to take things slowly?

No, but he was a bad pony for pushing her away.  He told himself he wanted her to be free, but that wasn't true.  He was a liar.  He lied to her, and to himself.

The truth was he wanted her to be with him, even if they fought.

He wanted to see her with a smile on her face and love in her eyes.  He wouldn't ask any questions.  He would hug her tight and promise to do better, to be better.  He'd swallow his pride and read whatever books there were on being romantic.

It wouldn't be easy, but he would do it to keep her if she'd just be there when he opened the door.

His magic slid along the lock and turned the knob.

His heart pounded, frightened, hopeful.

...

The apartment was quiet.
> I've Now Become an Expert
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At precisely six in the morning—not a minute earlier or later—Derelict Apathy woke up.  The bed was made as soon as she got out of it, and a shower was commenced right after.  Showers usually lasted between ten and fifteen minutes, but were never longer than twenty.  Once she had dried off, washed her face, and brushed her teeth, she would leave the bedroom to head to the kitchen.

She liked everything orderly and predictable.  That didn't classify her as obsessive compulsive; she had already tested herself.  She didn't mind if her surroundings were disorderly, and had no issue if there was an uneven amount of bananas or if her newspaper was crooked.  When it came to the rest of her life, however, she liked to keep to a schedule.

Perhaps that meant she had repetitive or obsessive tendencies, but that was beside the point.

Derelict enjoyed her retirement.  When the idea of leaving the professional world of psychoanalytic therapy first took root in her mind, she had spurned it.  How would she occupy her time if not with patients?  However, after years of treating ponies with various disorders, she realized she was bored.  There were no more cases that challenged her.  No new puzzles to solve.

Now she was free to explore new challenges every day: crosswords geared toward doctors and chemists; mathematical brainteasers that baffled and amazed; and logic puzzles that even she struggled with from time to time.  She was never bored.  Any time she did feel bored, she simply bought a new book of puzzles.

Until that stopped working.  She noticed the onset occurred rather suddenly—in the middle of a puzzle, to be exact.  One moment, she was entertained; and the next, she wasn't.

"How puzzling," she had said when it happened.

That was when she sought out a roommate to see if companionship would solve it.  Ponies were social creatures, after all.  It was instinctual for them to seek out other ponies, so she put an ad in the newspaper.  The first—and, technically, the last—to respond was a mare by the name of Lovey Dovey.

Lovey was a truly fascinating case.  Derelict had seen countless personalities in her years, but none came close to matching Lovey's.  To the untrained eye, she was an endless fount of optimism and energy.

Derelict's eyes were far from untrained, and she could see beneath the facade the first day they met.  There was a loneliness inside Lovey.  Desperation lurked in her every action.  She was so desperate, but why?  What for?

Derelict was determined to find out, and that was when the mornings stopped being quiet.

...

But this morning was quiet, just like they used to be.

"Lovey?" Derelict called, looking around the living room and spying a figure wrapped in several blankets sitting on the couch.  "Good morning.  This is quite unusual for you."

The bundle moved some, but otherwise didn't respond.

Derelict stood in front of the couch and tilted her head.  "Are you sick?"

"No," a quiet voice replied.  It was most definitely Lovey's.

"Then should you not be up and getting ready for work?"  Derelict lit her horn and started to peel away the layers of blankets.

A pale pink hoof shot out and grabbed the blanket's edge to yank it back into place.  "No."

Oh.  A new development.  Derelict's pad and pen floated over to start taking notes.  L has developed reclusive habits and lessened speech.  "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"No."

Instigating event: unknown.  Derelict lowered herself onto her recliner and crossed one hindleg over the other.  "All right.  How long do you plan to stay on the couch?"

There was a pause before the blankets shifted and one eye peered out at her.  How odd—weren't Lovey's eyes bright pink?  They looked more grey than Derelict remembered.  "Forever."

The pen tapped against the pad a few times before taking notes.  L appears to have lost color vibrancy.  Possible physical manifestation of depression.

"Why do you not want to go to work?"  Derelict watched the still bundle of blankets for any further sign of movement.  "Did something happen?"

The eye disappeared as the blankets shifted again.  "No."

Short responses; unwilling to talk; further symptoms of depression.  "This is a safe place to talk.  I will not judge you."

After a long, quiet moment, Lovey's head poked out from the blankets.  She had dark circles under her eyes—likely from a lack of proper sleep.  "You won't?"

Progress!  Derelict raised her brow.  "What did I say?  I said that I wouldn't."

Lovey hesitated.  She opened her mouth, breathed in, and turned her head away. "I think—I think Magnate is done with me."

Magnate?  The coltfriend?  Derelict kept her expression as stoic as always, but she felt a wave of disappointment.  Was it as simple as an affair of the heart?  That was incredibly banal.  A tragic backstory would have been more interesting to unravel, piece by piece, thread by thread.

However, Derelict had already gotten her hooves in this deep.  The least she could do was continue forward.  "And why do you think that?"

"Because—"  Lovey sniffled.  "Because I did what he said, but it still wasn't enough!  He wanted me to forget about love lines, so I did!  I got a normal job and became a normal pony and met him like a normal couple and he just—"  Her voice hitched and she raised her hooves to cover her face.  "He just walked away."

Lovey was a full-grown mare, and yet she was acting like a filly.  This was no surprise.  Love had fascinating and often unexplainable effects on the brain, and once the brain was compromised, there was no hope.

Derelict arched one brow.  "Why did he ask you to forget about love lines?  They're a part of who you are."

"They are."  Lovey's gaze wandered.  Derelict noticed that this happened often, increasingly so since she had taken a job as a weatherpony.  "They're never gone."

Possible anxiety disorder due to presence of 'love lines'.  Derelict reached out to put a hoof on Lovey's foreleg to check her pulse.  Symptoms: increased heart rate, constricted pupils, and labored breathing.

"But he doesn't like them.  Or—no, no."  Lovey trembled, and Derelict jotted this down.  "No, he doesn't like mine.  His.  Ours!  I don't know if we're connected.  I don't know if we're not connected!  He didn't believe in them, but now he does, and—and he knows that I don't know if we're soulmates or not!"  The tears had begun, as Derelict expected and already prepared for.  The tissue box was hovering in the air, and Lovey grabbed a hoofful of them.

"I see."  Derelict tapped her pen idly.

Love lines were important to Lovey.  They seemed to be responsible for much of her behavior: her obsession with love, her intermittent spells of anxiety, and—Derelict suspected—her desire to decorate with pink.  For Magnate to ask her to disregard them was a sign of controlling behavior, a fear that Lovey's uncertainty of their connection was a sign of their potential incompatibility, or a serious misunderstanding that she was blowing well out of proportion.

Derelict knew one thing for certain: communication was both the problem and the solution.

"Please excuse me a moment."  Derelict set her notepad down and rose from the recliner.  "I will be right back."

"Okay," Lovey said quietly, her voice muffled by the tissues her face was buried into.

As she left the apartment and headed for the stairs, she scoured her memory for what Lovey had said about Magnate when they first met.  "I think this would be an absolutely perfect place, because it would make me his two-floor one-door neighbor, which is practically living together!"

It was wholly inaccurate logic, but admittedly endearing.  And a harrowing reminder of how much Lovey had changed.

Derelict missed Lovey's smile.

Now, after descending two floors, Derelict was faced with a decision: was it one door to the left, or the right?  She glanced between the two doors.  They were, unsurprisingly, identical.  There was nothing to differentiate them from each other aside from location.  Given that most ponies in Manehattan worked high stress jobs such as accountants and bankers, it was just as likely that she would find Magnate as she would disturb a tired pony trying to enjoy their weekend.

The odds were an even split, neither in her favor nor against.  She shrugged and went for the right for no other reason than it happened to be on the right, knocked, and waited.

After a minute passed and she knocked a second time, the door finally opened and a familiar brown stallion greeted her with the same tired eyes that Lovey had.  "Derelict?"

"Good morning, Magnate."  Derelict gestured for him to follow her.  "Please come with me."

His ears shot straight up.  "Why?  Is something wrong with Lovey?  What happened?"

Genuine concern.  Well, that was a good start.  Derelict merely offered a shrug and turned to head back up the stairs.  He would either follow her or not, and the hurried hoofsteps told her he chose the former.

Once they reached her floor and stood outside the door, she paused to assess his condition: constricted pupils, labored breathing, and sweat lining his brow.  He didn't seem to be so far out of shape that two floors should put him in such a state, so she came to the conclusion that his state was brought on by concern for Lovey's wellbeing.

Satisfied by this, she unlocked the door and walked inside.  "Lovey, I've brought somepony to speak to you."

Lovey's eyes went wide when she saw Magnate and she dove back into the blankets to seek a false sense of security.  "No, no, no!"

"Lovey."  Magnate trotted over, then put a tender hoof on the trembling bundle.  "Lovey, I'm sorry.  I was wrong, I—"

Derelict cleared her throat.  "Excuse me."  She lowered onto her recliner and prepared a fresh page on her notepad.  "Magnate, please have a seat so we may begin."

Magnate turned to look at her with a slight frown.  "Begin?  Begin what?"

"Relationship counseling," Derelict said plainly.

It was understandable that Magnate would react with confusion and skepticism.  After all, he was a classic Introverted-Sensing-Thinking-Judging personality.  She was challenging his logical way of thinking with something foreign and subjective like counseling.

What surprised her, however, was that he sat down.  "All right."

M is open to counseling.  L is still hiding.  "Magnate, why do you think I brought you here?"

Magnate glanced down at Lovey, then met Derelict's gaze.  Bravery?  Confidence?  A desire to fix things?  "I assume it has to do with Lovey's current state."

"In a way, yes."  Derelict crossed one hindleg over the other.  "How would you describe her state?"

Magnate sighed, his composure falling in an instant as he slumped forward.  M appears to be displaying guilt.  Acknowledges his involvement.  "Because I said some terrible things to her."  He turned his head to look at Lovey, who had started to climb out of her blanket nest.  "To you.  Lovey, I'm sorry.  I thought you would be better off without me, but I'm no good without you.  I'll change, all right?  So, please, forgive me."

Derelict blinked.  Unexpected development.  M and L appear to be in an unhealthy relationship—both are dependent on each other.  "Lovey?  Do you have anything to say?"

Lovey just shook her head, not looking at Magnate.  She tugged the blanket tight around her shoulders.

"I see.  Magnate, when you say you are no good without Lovey, what do you mean?"

"What else could I mean?"  Magnate glared at her, aggression flaring briefly.  "I used to be fine with being alone, but then I met Lovey."  He reached out and stroked Lovey's cheek with a trembling hoof.  "I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have said what I did."

"No, I'm sorry!"  Lovey withdrew from him, her ears folding back against her mane.  "I'm the one who made a mistake!"

The cycle needs to stop.

Derelict sighed and raised a hoof.  "I would like to interrupt."  She lowered her pad and pen, leaned in, and crossed her hooves to rest her muzzle on them.  "Both of you have made a mistake, but it's not the one you each think you made.  The problem here is a lack of proper communication.

"Magnate, you said some things that you now regret.  Lovey, you tried to change who you are because of what he said."  Derelict shook her head.  "Magnate, can you see why that is a problem?"

"Because—"  Magnate blinked.  "Because, look at her!  She's not herself.  She's not Lovey!"

Lovey furrowed her brow.  "What?  Of course I'm Lovey.  Who else would I be?"

Magnate sighed and dropped his head into his hooves.  "Is this really what relationship counseling is supposed to be like?"

"Oh, no, but I'm not licensed anymore.  I retired years ago."  Derelict shrugged.  "That means I can be honest without losing my job.  So, in my honest opinion, you're both wrong.  Magnate, Lovey—you can't simply change who you are.  From what I understand, the issue isn't who either of you are, and it isn't about love lines.  It's that neither of you have made an earnest attempt to compromise due to poor communication."

"Compromise?"  Lovey blinked.

Derelict nodded.  "Lovey, you try too hard.  You hide your need for validation with exaggerated acts of affection and optimism.  Magnate, you are too inexperienced.  When Lovey pulls, you push.  When you push, you regret not pulling instead.  I've seen all of this several times before.  Both of you need to talk with one another rather than pushing and pulling."

Magnate looked up from his hooves.  "I—"  He straightened up and just stared at Derelict.

She returned the stare with a blank expression.  Any emotion betrayed on her part would affect his mental state.  He had to accept and reject emotions on his own, not based on any accidental influence on her part.

From her limited exposure to him, she believed she had a good grasp on who he was: a logical, rational stallion who buried himself in work and had never been in a relationship before.  The combination of his wariness of love with Lovey's overbearing desperation for it was dangerous.  Without taking the time to sit down and understand one another better, it could even become toxic.

Something must have clicked because Magnate's expression softened.  "I believe I understand—to a degree, at least."

"You do?"  Lovey looked up at him with uncertainty on her face and in her voice.

"Yes."  He turned toward her.  "I think I do.  Or, at the very least, I know where Derelict is suggesting we start."  He stood up and offered a hoof for her to take.  "Lovey, will you come back to my apartment so we can talk over breakfast?"

Lovey rubbed at her eyes, then nodded and took his hoof, a small smile crossing her lips as he pulled her out of the blankets.  "Okay."

Derelict smiled as she watched the two head for the door together, leaving her to the peace and quiet of being alone.  Her pen lifted from its resting place and took the last of her notes.

Rather than simply hearing, M and L may finally start listening.  Will check on their progress in a week.

Satisfied with her work, Derelict replaced the pen and paper with a crossword puzzle.  "Let's see.  A five-letter word for silence..."
> Getting to Like You
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lovey followed Magnate down the stairs, her brow furrowing when they continued on past his floor.  "Magny?"

"Change of plans," he said simply and nothing else.  He kept walking down the stairs until there were no more, and Lovey kept following.

Magnate led her away from the apartment complex, down a few blocks, and across the street into a city park.  Once they crossed the threshold from the sidewalk to the green space, he stopped and let out a sigh.

"This is better."  He turned his head to look at her.  "This is safer than my apartment."

Lovey couldn't help the small flutter of her wings as she felt the grass beneath her hooves.  It reminded her of Ponyville, the place she used to call home.  "Safer?"  She blinked up at him.  "Why isn't your apartment safe?"

Magnate gave a vague gesture with one hoof.  "In public, I feel compelled to maintain my composure.  It will prevent me from getting worked up and saying something I would rather not."

"Oh."  Lovey's ears drooped and she dropped her gaze back to the ground.  "But if you want to say it, then shouldn't you?  Isn't that what Derri wants us to do?"

"If I understand her correctly, then she wants us to be upfront and honest.  I will be that.  I will also not lash out unnecessarily."  He sighed and levitated his glasses off his snout, raising them up to rest atop his head and behind his horn.  "Lovey, this isn't easy for me.  I have been on my own ever since I graduated and moved out of my parents' estate.  I was raised to never express myself."

Lovey giggled, though it was a half-hearted and weak sound.  "Mom and Dad raised me to express myself all the time.  They said it's bad to bottle up your feelings.  Kind of ironic, isn't it?  Since they were bottling up theirs!"

Magnate rolled his shoulders in a light shrug as he started walking forward.  The park was alive with foals running about, birds flitting to and fro, one couple having a picnic, and another sitting on a bench to share an ice cream cone.  In the middle of it all was Lovey and Magnate: two ponies who were together even though they had no obvious right to be.

"What was it like?" Magnate finally asked.  "Having parents who divorced, I mean."

"It was—"  Lovey hesitated.  Honesty.  "It was—It wasn't easy?"  She sighed and her wings drooped low.  "It was easy at home.  Everything was fine at home!  Mom and Dad were happy, and so were Dad and Mom.  We were happy.  But the ponies in my neighborhood teased me.  They said I wasn't normal, and that it was my fault my parents' got a divorce.  And—And maybe they were right, I don't know."  Her lower lip trembled.  "I'm not normal.  I've never been normal."

Without saying anything, Magnate merely glanced over at her with a somber expression on his face.  She had no choice but to continue if she wanted to smother the silence that buzzed with her darkening thoughts.

"I was so scared when I first saw the love lines," she muttered.  "I thought they were pretty, but when nopony else could see them, I was scared.  My parents took me to a doctor, who said my eyes seemed fine and that I shouldn't be seeing anything.  But the more I thought about them, the more I saw them!  I had to drop out of school because I couldn't focus in class, and Mom and Dad and Dad and Mom had to homeschool me."

Magnate stopped to look across the small pond that sat at the center of the park.  A few ducks glided across the water's sun-glittered surface that rippled from their gentle movement and the caress of a light breeze.  It was a perfectly perfect day, idyllic and picturesque even down to the little flowers that dotted the bright green grass.

So why did Lovey's heart feel so heavy?

Her gaze fell to her hooves, hooves she barely recognized as her own.  They were so pale, so foreign.  How long had they looked this way?  What color were they before?

"I can empathize," Magnate finally said, still looking away from her.  His expression was distant and thoughtful as his gaze sought something Lovey couldn't see.  "To a small degree, that is.  I understand the sentiment of being treated differently, but not quite to the same level.  I was teased for being the poorest rich pony in my class."

Lovey snorted, then clamped a hoof over her mouth and stared up at him with wide eyes.

Magnate shook his head.  "I'm aware of how privileged that sounds.  As a colt, it made me feel outcasted, as nopony wanted to associate with the 'poor pony'.  The only option for me was to impress my father, and I chose to do the opposite.  I moved out and joined another company.  I've been content by myself, but—"

He turned his head to look at her, his eyes tired but his lips lifted in the faintest of smiles.  "You've ruined that.  I've felt the comfort of having somepony in my life.  I don't know how to live with you, but I do know that at this point, I can't live without you."

It happened too fast.  Lovey's head started spinning as her vision blurred with tears, and she had to drop down onto her haunches to keep from stumbling as she reeled from the pain in her chest.  "That—"  Her voice hitched.  "Then why do you keep pushing me away?  Why can't we be together?"

There was a long silence before Magnate sighed and sat down beside her.  He returned his gaze to the lake, where two ducks had broken off from the others to swim together.  "Because I'm afraid that you'll be unhappy with me.  I'm afraid that I'll lose you if I reach for you because I might get annoyed with you again, so it's easier to lose you now than before I'm too attached to you.  You're so different from me that I can't imagine how you could possibly be happy with a stallion like me."

Lovey sat there for a while, simply gazing up at him.  Her heart started to pound in her chest until she blurted out, "We're not that different, actually."

"What?"  Magnate met her gaze with a furrowed brow.  "Of course we are.  I can't imagine how we could be any more different, actually."

Lovey raised her hooves to wipe at her puffy, sore eyes and heaved a sigh.  "Juniper is the only real friend I've ever had, and even she gets tired of me."  Her wings drooped.  "Ponies either like me in short bursts, or not at all, because I'm me.  But it's hard to not be me, not when I've had to be me for so long.  It's easier to be me than to be me!"

Magnate hesitated before putting his hoof on hers.  "I don't understand?"

The sound of her heartbeat reached all the way to her ears and she looked up, her chest clenching tight as it all came into view: pink and red lines going in all directions, some tangled, some strong, some nearly to the point of breaking.  All over the city—all over Equestria, even—were ponies in love, about to be in love, about to miss love.  Love was everywhere...

... except around her.  She was surrounded by dead, empty air that she struggled to breathe.  She'd never had a love line.  She never would.  Love wasn't for her.

Why not?  Why did she have to spend her life helping others fall in love, but not herself?  Was that the sacrifice?  Was that the cost of her special talent?  If so, did that make it a gift, or a curse?

"Lovey?"  Magnate gently touched her cheek and turned her head to look at him.  "Are you all right?"

Everything dissipated when she looked into his eyes.  Her heart calmed down, her breathing returned to normal, and the buzzing ceased.  The tears that were falling down her cheeks felt hot, but she didn't mind them.

"No," she said in a soft voice.  "How can I be?  When I was a filly, everypony stayed away from me.  They still do.  I've only met, like, three ponies who understand what I see!"  She covered her eyes with both hooves to block out the lines drifting through the air.  "I see love, everywhere, all the time, but there's none for me.  All of the love lines avoid me."

The tears fell faster and her lower lip started to tremble.  "I've always been alone and I always will, and the only way I can cope with that is by being the happy me nopony likes!  Don't you get it?  I have to be happy, because if I'm not, then I don't have anything!  No love, no happiness!  What kind of pony would that make me?"

Magnate listened silently until her whole body started to tremble.  That was when he took action; he pushed her hooves out of the way, cupped her cheeks in his hooves, and leaned in to brush his lips against hers.  The gesture startled her into a momentary state of calm, if only because her mind was briefly unable to focus on anything.

"Magnate?" she breathed, her heart fluttering again.  Unlike before, it was a pleasant flutter, like the first time he had kissed her: a giddy, happy little feeling that she wanted to hold onto forever.

He sighed, setting his forehead against hers and closed his eyes.  "As afraid as I am of hurting you or losing you, the only thing I want to do is hold you tight.  I'm sorry, Lovey.  I don't understand you.  I don't understand me.  I don't understand love lines, or love, or even like.  But I can't just go back to the way things were before I met you."  He opened his eyes so she could gaze into the blue depths that seemed to pull her in.

Lovey ducked her head to tuck it under his muzzle.  "Then what do we do?"

Magnate put a hoof on the back of her neck and held her close.  "I cannot make any promises except that I'll try.  I'm not a perfect stallion, but if you want to make this work, then I'll try harder this time."

"Even though I'm annoying?" Lovey sniffled.

"The same could be—and has been—said about me."  Magnate chuckled, the sound reverberating in his chest.  "Yes?  No?  How should I know?  I miss you when you're gone.  I know that much.  Isn't that enough for now?"

Lovey sighed and closed her eyes.  She could hear his heartbeat.  It was a steady, soothing, comforting sound that cleared the fog in her mind.  Warmth spread throughout her chest and reached all the way to her hooves.  "So we just try again?"

"Yes, but slower this time.  I'll do my best to be patient with you if you can do your best to do the same for me."  Magnate stroked her mane with one hoof.  "That means no moving in unexpectedly or anything of that nature."

The longer she listened to his heart, the more her own calmed, as if falling in sync with his.  "Slower sounds perfect."

Magnate's hoof paused in its ministrations before he cleared his throat.  "There is one condition, however."

"What?  What is it?"  She resisted the urge to pull away, as that would mean she'd lose the sound of his heartbeat, but she did tremble with reignited uncertainty.  "I can do it!  Or I'll try!"

"I would like to meet your parents again."  He resumed stroking her mane, but there was a distinct nervousness in his voice as he continued, "I'm not certain we left off with a very positive impression of one another, and I would like to fix that."

Lovey couldn't help it.  Excitement overpowered her senses and sent her wings into a fluttering frenzy.  "Oh, no!  They liked you!  It was me they were upset with.  But I can absolutely write to them and have them come back to Manehattan!"  She pulled back from him and beamed.  "Should I have them come to your place?  Or maybe to mine?  I'm sure Derelict wouldn't mind!  Maybe—"

Magnate pressed a hoof over her mouth.  "Shh.  Slower, remember?"  He shook his head, but a soft smile was on his lips.  "How about dinner with them next week?  And, perhaps, dinner for the two of us tonight?"

Smiling around his hoof and with her wings still fluttering behind her, she just nodded happily.
> Making Our Own Fun
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Here y'all are," the waitress said as she dropped a plate on the middle of the table that was piled high with pancakes.  "Enjoy!"

Magnate peered at the stack of syrupy pancakes, then up at Lovey.  "And of anything available in Manehattan, this is what you want for dinner?"

Lovey gave an enthusiastic nod.  "Yep!  I mean, normally, I'd want whipped cream and strawberry syrup and fresh strawberries, and maybe some sprinkles, but I figured that since we're sharing a meal, I'd tone down the sugar for you."  She winked.  "Nice and slow!"

"What?"  Magnate half-snorted, half-chuckled.  "Lovey, do you know what I meant by going slow?"

"Yes?  Of course!"  She cut herself a big piece of pancake and stuffed it in her mouth.  "Why?"

He sighed and paused to take a sip of water.  "I meant in our relationship."

There was a moment of silence before Lovey swallowed and said, "Oh."

His brow raised.  "What did you think I meant?"

"I dunno!"  Her ears drooped and she stared down at the pancakes.  "Like, being less me?  That's what I'd want from me if I weren't me."

With a sigh, Magnate reached around the plate to grab her hoof.  "No, Lovey.  I am fine with you being you, for the most part.  It's our relationship that I want you to take slow, not yourself."

"Okay."  She nibbled on her lower lip, glancing between their joined hooves and his face.  "What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means we take this relationship at a relaxed pace rather than you trying to jump straight into talks about marriage," he said, his voice a little strained.  "We start at like.  Just like.  Love comes afterwards."  His blue eyes drilled into her with a serious look.  "Can you honestly, truly say you love me?"

Lovey squirmed under the weight of his gaze.  Love!  It was all she knew.  She didn't know like.  What was like?  "I don't know," she finally admitted quietly, "but I want to."

Surprisingly, Magnate chuckled.  "That's like, Lovey.  That's how I feel about you.  I don't love you—it's far too soon for that—but I would like to someday."

"How long does it take for like to turn into love?"  She withdrew her hoof from his to pick up her fork and stab at another piece of pancake.  "How will I know when it's okay to love you?"

"Why are you asking me?"  He leaned back in his seat and folded his forelegs over his chest.  "I thought you were the expert on this.  It's certainly not me."

She huffed lightly.  "I thought I was!"  She stuffed the pancake in her mouth.  "Bu' I waff wong!"

For a while, neither said anything.  Lovey drowned her feelings under layers of syrup and pancake while Magnate just watched her.  When she hit the bottom of the plate, she sunk into her seat and tried to hide from his watchful, studious gaze.

Like.  Love.  They were totally different, but she didn't know how.  She'd never worked with like lines before.  Ponies met and fell in love.  Wasn't that how it worked?  Follow the love lines, the spark happens, and everything works out.  Well—sometimes.  Most of the time.  She'd never had a repeat customer, but she had worked on tangled or damaged love lines before.

Love was complicated.  She'd never realized that before, but it was really, really complicated.

"When did you lose your color?" Magnate asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Lovey blinked and looked down at her pale, foreign coat.  "I, um—I don't remember."

He hummed in thought, tapping his hoof against the other leg.  "You took a job as a weatherpony and stopped working with love lines, right?"

She gave a meek nod in response.

"And as a result, you feel an emptiness inside, don't you?"

Her head jerked up to meet his gaze.  "Huh?  What?  I—Yeah, but how did you know?"

Magnate said nothing for a while and just kept tapping.  His brow started to furrow until he sighed and turned his head to the side.  "There is a secret I have never told anypony.  I've buried it so deep that I think I've almost forgotten about it, myself."

"Huh?"  She tried to keep from leaning in with interest and did her best to look calm and neutral.  "Why?"

"Because it was easier.  I didn't want to accept it, so I ran from it instead."  He frowned.  "Lovey, I've never wanted to do what I do.  I've never wanted to be a businesspony.  My father decided that for me.  But more than that—"  He sighed and dropped his head to look down at himself.  "My cutie mark.  It's not a briefcase."

With a curious purse of her lips, Lovey leaned down to peer under the table at his cutie mark that was so totally a briefcase, then straightened back up.  "Then what is it?"

"It's a suitcase."  He raised a hoof to push up his glasses and rub the bridge of his muzzle.  "As a colt, I would plan vacations I could never take because I was destined to take over my father's company.  When I finally decided I had planned the perfect vacation, that was when I got my cutie mark.  It was the happiest and saddest moment of my life, because of the yoke around my neck."

"But you left your family!"  She tilted her head, brow furrowed.  "Why didn't you leave town?"

"How could I?"  He frowned at her.  "I left my family's wealth.  I had nothing.  The only thing I had was my father's name and years of studying business.  So, I let go of what I wanted to do and did the only thing I could do."  His frown lightened as he sighed.  "By the time I had the financial freedom to go on vacations, I had forgotten about the notion.  I've honestly not given it a second thought until I looked at you and realized what's wrong with you."

Lovey wrung her hooves and glanced away from him.  "Then what's wrong with me?"

Magnate gave an idle bob of his head.  "You're denying who you are.  I've done it for so long that I'm used to it, but you've been you for so long that you can't cope.  That's why you've lost your vibrancy; you're trying to lose yourself."

It didn't take very long for Lovey's vision to become blurred with tears.  Her wings trembled at her sides and she tucked them in close for a self-hug.  "But—"  She sniffled.  "But I don't know what else to do, Magny.  If I stop trying to stop being me, then I'll annoy you all over again, and we'll be right back where we were, and I don't want you to hate me again!"

"Lovey."  Magnate sighed and shook his head.  He slid out of his seat and moved around the table to stand beside her.  "I never hated you.  You just overwhelmed me, all right?"  He leaned in to kiss her cheek.  "Come on.  Let's find you an ice cream parlor.  I think there's one up the block."

Lovey sniffled again, but nodded and followed alongside him.  "You mean it?  You don't hate me?"

"If I hated you, would I be here with you now?"  He gave her a light smile.  "Just go back to being yourself.  We can work on the rest together."

Warmth filled her chest as she looked at his smile.  "Yeah?"  She giggled.  "Okay.  But what about you?"

"Me?"  He blinked.

"Yes, you, silly!  You just told me you're not doing what you love.  Do you think I'd just forget that?"  An extra skip added to her step.  "You should go on that dream vacation you planned as a colt!"

"Oh."  He paused to hold the door open for her, then continued once they were outside, "It's not as bad as you make it sound.  I don't hate my work.  It doesn't make me as happy as yours makes you, but I fail to see the problem with that.  It pays well, and I'm due a promotion soon."

Lovey scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue.  "Bleh!  All the bits in the world couldn't make me happy at a job I didn't love."  Her ears perked up at a sudden thought and she looked up at him with a hesitant, sheepish grin.  "Would going on vacation together be too fast?"

Magnate's shoulders rolled in a shrug as they walked down the sidewalk.  "No, but it's fine.  I need a job, and my job would be impacted if I took too many vacations and fell behind in my work.  I'd lose everything I've worked for."

"But if it's not what you want, then why does it matter?"  She huffed.  "I think you should quit and become a professional vacationer!"

After a pause, Magnate laughed.  It wasn't a full, hearty laugh, but it was certainly more than a chuckle.  "That isn't a job, Lovey."

Lovey's wings fluttered as she hopped into the air.  "Sure it is!  Ponies vacation all the time.  We just have to figure out how to get paid to do it!"

He shook his head, still laughing softly.  "I appreciate the enthusiasm, but if we're going to be in a relationship, then one of us has to make a stable income."

Slowly, Lovey lowered back to the ground.  She bit her lower lip as her gaze darted away from him and mumbled, "But, well, if I keep my job as a weatherpony, I'll have a stable income, and you can go vacation, you know."

"Definitely not," he replied quickly and firmly.  "You are quitting the weather business immediately.  I know you quit being a matchmaker so you could stay here, but if chasing love lines is what makes you Lovey, then perhaps you should reconsider being a matchmaker again."

Lovey gasped, perking back up.  "Oh!  That's a great idea, Magny!  I'll be a matchmaker and you can follow me across Equestria!  We'll see every city together, and—"  Her enthusiasm faded.  "Oh, no, but we might get separated, and I might be so focused on a love line that I don't notice, and we could never stay in one place very long for you to enjoy it."

"We'll figure out something for you.  In the meantime, why don't you get some ice cream?"  He gestured at the little corner parlor they stood outside of.  "My treat."

At first, Lovey wanted to bolt inside and look at all the flavors.  Thinking about the future and careers wasn't fun, but ice cream sure was!  Her hooves didn't move, however, and she found herself instead looking up at Magnate.

"It's okay," she said, smiling and trotting on down the sidewalk.  "I think I'd rather figure out how we can both do what we want to do.  That's more important right now, anyway, right?"

Love.  She loved love.  She loved to help love.  How could she stay in one place to be with Magnate but still help ponies with love?  And what about Magnate?  He said he got his cutie mark when he planned his dream vacation.

Magnate blinked a few times, then shrugged and followed after her.  "All right, but—"

Planned.  Not went on his dream vacation, but planned it.

"Oh!"  Lovey came to a halt, not budging when he bumped into her from the sudden stop.  "I've got it!"  She spun around, threw her hooves around his neck, and kissed him.  "Magny, I have the most perfect idea!  You're going to absolutely love it!"

Staring down at her and with his mouth hanging slightly open in surprise, he just nodded dumbly.
> All the Beautiful and New Things
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stallion across the table stared at Magnate, neither flinching from each other's hardened gaze.  Tension hung thick in the air as they waited for the other to surrender and, finally, the stallion broke into a chuckle.

"All right, all right.  You win.  I'll give you a fifteen percent commission for anypony you send my way."  He took one last sip of his coffee before he rose to his hooves.  "I'll have the contract drawn up and sent to your office by the end of the week."

Magnate mirrored him, rising as well.  "Thank you, Mr. Views.  I appreciate it.  There's been a recent increase in hot air balloon ride requests, so I guarantee you won't regret this."

Scenic Views reached out a hoof and gave Magnate's a firm shake.  "You're a tough negotiator, but I can't deny the facts."  He nodded his head toward the extensive presentation Magnate had prepared.  "I look forward to working with you."

"And I, you.  Have a nice day."  Magnate watched the stallion leave the small cafe before he relaxed into a smile, resting a hoof on his vest's breast pocket.  His magic started to gather up his presentation to tuck back into his briefcase when a familiar face came up beside him.

"Magnate?"

Blinking, Magnate stared at the face.  He knew this pony.  He had worked with him for just about twenty years.  "Deal?"

"Zeal," the stallion corrected with a soft laugh.  "Fervent Zeal.  You never learned my name, did you?"

"I apologize.  I—"

"It's fine."  Zeal shook his head.  "Wow, though.  It's been a while.  Look at you!"  He took a step back and looked Magnate over from head to hoof.  "When you quit, I thought you had lost it, but seeing you now—wow."

Magnate glanced down at himself.  His brown coat had a nice sheen to it, as if he had just been to a salon.  "Yes, wow, indeed."  He looked back up, smiling lightly.  "Do you remember Lovey?"

Zeal raised one brow.  "The pink mare that kept showing up at your office?"

"Correct.  Lovey encouraged me to follow this path."  Magnate's magic reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card, which floated over to Zeal.  "I'm a travel agent now."

A laugh sputtered past Zeal's lips as he looked over the card.  "A travel agent?  You?"

Magnate nodded.  "Yes.  I don't blame you for being surprised."

"Surprised doesn't begin to cover it!"  Zeal shook his head and gave a lopsided grin.  "I thought you quit to go to your father's company after you got passed over for a promotion, again."

Magnate's ear twitched and his gaze darted away.  It still stung—the moment when he realized how many times he'd heard that good things were coming his way, and how many years had gone by without him ever getting anywhere.  He sucked in a breath and tried to smile again.  "I'm sorry for the way I've always treated you."

"And for never learning my name?"  Zeal winked.  "It's fine.  Why don't I keep your card and I'll stop by sometime to plan a trip for my wife's birthday?"

Magnate blinked.

Zeal raised his brow.  "Seriously?  You didn't even know I was married?"

"To be honest," Magnate muttered, his ears falling flat to the sides, "there was a period of time where I thought you were interested in me, given that you would never leave me alone."

Tossing his head back and laughing whole-heartedly, Zeal reached out and slapped Magnate on the shoulder.  "Why couldn't you have been this fun when we worked together?"  He snickered, shaking his head.  "Hold on to that mare of yours.  She's clearly a good influence on you."

A sincere smile spread across Magnate's muzzle.  "I plan to.  On that note, I'm going to be late for dinner with her parents, so if you'll excuse me."  He started to walk past Zeal, then paused.  "I look forward to planning the perfect trip for you and your wife."

"I'll hold you to that!"

Magnate nodded and waved before making his way out of the cafe, his briefcase floating in the air beside him.  Lovey had managed to find one that matched his cutie mark exactly—and, on the inside, it had several pockets where a heart-shaped note was always waiting for him.

Life had changed so much in only three months, but that was hardly surprising.  Lovey had changed his life in a mere week.  A few months had no chance of standing against her overpowering optimism, especially once she got her own life back on track.  

Manehattan felt brighter these days.  He noticed birds in the sky he used to think empty; there was more greenery than he remembered; and, most of all, the sun shone with a happy warmth.  There was only one word to describe what had happened to Manehattan, and to him: love.

He loved his job, he loved himself, and he loved having Lovey in his life.  All that was left was to express to her that, more than anything, he loved her.

Magnate chuckled under his breath while he waited for the road to clear so that he could cross.  Perhaps he was rushing things with the word 'love'.  After all, he was the one who had told her to slow down, and now he was the one wanting to speed things up.  But how could he not?  If having her at his side brought him so much happiness, who could blame him for wanting to keep her there forever?

His hooves echoed as he climbed the stairs that led to his floor, and he froze when a muffled laugh cut through the air.  It was Lovey's laugh.  He smiled and resumed walking, preparing himself for an apartment full of her and her family.  There were only a few precious seconds left for decompressing after a full day of work, and he needed every single one of them. 

He paused and took a deep breath to prepare himself.  Lovey would be in an ecstatic mood with her parents visiting.  The four hooves rule would be forgotten.  This moment was all he had alone, and now it was over.

Exhaling, he pushed the door open and smiled as the smells of dinner and the sounds of laughter washed over him like a warm, gentle breeze.

"Welcome home!" Sun Shower called from where she stood in his apartment's kitchen, stirring a pot on the stove with Diamond Dust at her side.  "You're just in time!"

On the couch, Snow Squall and Arcus were engaged in conversation with Lovey sitting between them.  Her big pink eyes lit up when she met Magnate's gaze, and she squealed as she jumped into the air to greet him with a flying hug.

"Magny!  We were just talking about you!"  She settled onto the floor in front of him and beamed.  "How was work?  Did you have a good meeting with the hot air balloon pony?  What was the best part of your day?"

"Slow down," Magnate said with a light chuckle as he floated the briefcase over to its resting place.  "I'm not even two hooves through the door."

Lovey squeaked, nodded, and took a step back.  "Right, right!  Four hooves rule.  Sorry."  Once he had all four hooves past the threshold of his apartment, she hugged him again.  "Welcome home!"

On the recliner, a newspaper lowered to reveal Derelict's face behind it.  "What is the 'four hooves rule'?"

Magnate blinked.  "What are you doing here?"

Lovey raised both forehooves.  "Oh!  Oh!  I know the answer to both of those!"  She sat on her haunches and recited in a mimicry of Magnate's voice, "The four hooves rule is that Lovey shouldn't overwhelm Magnate when he gets home until he has all four hooves into the apartment."  Her voice returned to normal as she looked up at him, "And Derri is here because we're having a family dinner and she's family!"

"Actually," Derelict said, "it's because we ran into one another at the supermarket.  She invited me to dinner because I mentioned my roommate was out of town."

Lovey put on her most pitiful expression, eyes shimmering and lower lip sticking out.  "It's the least we can do, Magny!  Me moving out left her with no roommate, and this new one has gone out of town!  She's all alone because of you!"

Magnate frowned lightly, rubbing a hoof over his vest.  "How is it my fault?  I gave you the choice of moving in, and you took it."

"By technicality, that would make it your fault, Lovey."  Derelict raised her newspaper back up, a hint of mirth in her otherwise monotonous voice.

"Now, now, kids," Diamond Dust interrupted as she trotted over.  "Let's not fight during family dinner night."

With a soft sigh, Magnate raised one foreleg to gesture Diamond closer and they exchanged a light embrace.  "I'm sorry, Diamond.  It's nice to see you."

"Will somepony get the table ready?" Sun Shower called.  "Soup's almost done!"

"Okay, Mom!" Lovey chirped, fluttering her wings so she zipped through the air to collect plates, napkins, and other tableware.

Magnate trotted over to the couch to greet her fathers with hoofshakes.  "I hope the flight wasn't too much trouble."

Arcus gave a meaningful flick of his wings against his sides.  "We never mind, Magnate!  Always happy to come see how our little filly is doing with her stallion."

"And how are things?" Snow Squall asked, eyeing Magnate with playful suspicion.

Magnate turned his head to watch as Lovey worked on the table, Derelict offering a hoof in aligning the utensils with the plates.  "I have no complaints."  He smiled.  "We have our struggles, as I imagine all couples do.  Sometimes I get frustrated with her.  Sometimes she gets frustrated with me.  But, at the end of the day, she is the mare I am happy to come home to."

Arcus's hoof thrust out to punch Magnate's shoulder a little harder than he would have liked.  "That's a good colt!  Now just make her an honest mare and we'll be the happiest fathers this side of Equestria."

Heat filled Magnate's cheeks and he recoiled back a few steps, coughing to clear his throat.  "I—then."  The heat reached to the tips of his ears.  "I can take that to mean, then, that you would approve of me as a future son-in-law?"

Arcus and Squall both went silent, their heads snapping to the side to stare at one another.  Slow grins spread across their muzzles as they turned back to Magnate, a devious spark in their eyes.

"Magnate," Arcus started.

Squall finished, "Are you planning something?"

"I'll take that as a yes," Magnate quickly spat out before he turned away.  "Oh, it sounds as if dinner is ready."

"Mom!  Dad!  Dad!  Mom!"  Lovey clapped her hooves, giggling.  "You four sit here, here, here, and here!  Magny and I will sit here and here, and Derri can sit here!"

Magnate's ear flicked.  "Wouldn't it be easier to differentiate them?"

Lovey tilted her head toward him.  "Huh?  What do you mean?"

"Mom, Mom, Dad, Dad.  Isn't it confusing?"  He waved a hoof.  "It would be more clear if you called them, I don't know—Mom One and Mom Two?"

With an exaggeratedly loud gasp, Lovey embraced Diamond with one leg and dragged her over to Sun so that she could hug her, too.  "No way!  They're both Mom One to me!"

Magnate raised one brow, shifting his gaze between Diamond and Sun.  "Then how do you know who she's speaking to?"

In perfect unison, Diamond covered Lovey's left ear with one hoof and Sun covered the right.  While Lovey giggled and fluttered her wings, Sun began, "Honestly, we have no idea."

Diamond nodded.  "We just take turns responding to her, and she never corrects us, so it seems to work out."

Magnate couldn't help it.  He put a hoof on his chest and started laughing, startling the mothers into releasing Lovey, who smiled innocently and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Magnate managed between laughs.  "I'm just happy."

Giggling, Lovey trotted up to him and nuzzled her nose to his.  "Oh, that's a great reason to laugh!"

She stood there in front of him with her mothers behind her, her fathers coming over to take their seats at the table, and Derelict taking notes as always.  Love, family, and friends—three things Magnate had been ignoring for so long, but not anymore.  Not ever again.

The moment was too perfect to pass up, but the very thought of moving forward made his heart pound in his chest.  He was originally going to wait until after dinner, but the way she looked into his eyes told him that now was the time.

Magnate sucked in a breath and reached into his vest pocket, stirring gasps from everypony else in the room when he lowered himself onto bended knee.  "Lovey, I have something I would like to say."
> Getting to Know What to Say
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"There is a flower within my heart," Lovey sang as her hooves worked the typewriter in front of her, "Magny, Magny!  Planted one day by a glancing dart, planted by Magny Bell!"

The bright pink office around her was all aglow with her high spirits.  Under the current of her singing was the click-ticka-click of the two typewriter keys pushed and pressed in the different directions to lay out her thoughts on paper.

Dear Lost My Heart in Las Pegasus,

Sometimes, parents don't always approve of our partners.  It's been their job our whole life to take care of us, then we hit the age where we don't need them anymore but they still want to protect us!  Don't hate them for being against your new coltfriend.  If your heart says he's the one, then that's all you need to know.  Your parents just need time.  They'll come around eventually.

Love from Lovey!

Lovey grabbed the finished paper, set it on top of a stack of others, and slid them all onto her back to carry out of her office.  "Paper Pusher!"

The stallion with lanky legs and a never-failing smile trotted around the corner.  "Yes, Miss Lovey?"

"Can you get these to Kahuna as soon as possible?"  One wing lowered to grant him access to the papers.  "I have dinner with Mom and Dad and Dad and Mom and Magny tonight, so I want to get to the store ay-sap!"

Paper Pusher nodded, sliding the stack into his satchel.  "Right away!  Have a good dinner, Miss Lovey!"

After locking up her office, Lovey made her way through the large room of cubicles and ponies at work.  The light, neutral tones made the love lines surrounding her stand out all the more, but she just smiled and kept walking.  Breathe in, breathe out, eyes ahead, heart calm.

"Heading home?" Blue Hearts asked, leaning out of her cubicle to look at Lovey with a smile.

"Yup!"  Lovey's ears wiggled.  "Family dinner date night!"

Blue Hearts gave a soft giggle behind one hoof, then glanced around before waving Lovey closer and whispering, "Hey, before you go—?"

Lovey relaxed into a light smile.  "Let me take a look."  She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of her heart beating.  It had been at a nice, even pace, but now that she could feel the love lines floating around her, it sped up.  When she opened her eyes, she saw the red line drifting from Blue Hearts's chest and out into Equestria.

"How is it?"  Blue Hearts fidgeted in her seat.  "Is it still okay?"

"It looks strong to me, so don't give up just yet!"  Lovey giggled and fluttered her wings.  With her heart pounding in her ears and sweat beading along the back of her neck, she trotted in place before sprinting toward the door.  "Okay, I really have to go!  Toodles!"

Instead of taking the elevator, she took the stairs—or, rather, she flew down them.  Her wings just barely grazed the hoofrails as she soared down the spiral staircase, her descent taking her faster and faster until she reached the lobby.  The doors had one chance to open, otherwise she was going to either break through them or break her neck trying.

Thankfully, somepony saw her coming and reacted just fast enough to throw open a door.  She tucked her wings in close to her sides to avoid clipping them, then flared them back out and angled herself upwards to dart into the sky.

Once she was far above the city, she landed on a cloud and buried her face in it.  Her heart was racing so hard she couldn't hear the wind whipping past her from being so high up, but she could feel it through her coat and feathers.  The cold breeze chilled the heat that radiated from her very core.

"Breathe in, breathe out," she muttered under her shaky breath.  "Breathe in, breathe—"

She exhaled and lifted her head to look over the edge of the cloud.  Red and pink lines of all different hues stretched across Manehattan like a spider's web.  Her heart wanted to follow them, but that wasn't her life anymore.  Ponies had unknowingly followed their love lines before she existed, and they'd continue to do so without her direct help.

The lines ebbed and flowed, twisted and snaked, faded and brightened.  Ant-sized ponies made their way through the city, unaware of the forces of love all around them.  Love for special someponies, love for friends, love for family.  Love was in the air ponies breathed and they didn't even know it.

It was hard, but she let it go.  She smiled as she saw more of the ponies going about their day than the love lines, and her heart started to calm.  They lived simple lives, and so could she.

"All right, wings," she muttered as she rose to her hooves, "let's get moving."

Lovey took a leisurely glide down into the heart of Manehattan, two blocks away from the apartment complex she lived in with Magnate, and landed right outside the local grocery.  A bell chimed as she pushed the door open to trot inside and chirped, "Hello!"

The cashier grunted in reply.  So many ponies in Manehattan lived in such a gloomy state.  Lovey wished she could help them all, but the best she could do was show them a better way.

Slipping a basket onto her back and humming as she headed to the fresh produce, Lovey caught sight of a familiar crystalline coat the color of ebony.  "Derri?"

"Hello, Lovey," Derelict replied without turning around.

Lovey gasped.  "How did you know it was me?!"

Derri's ear flicked.  "Who is the only pony who calls me 'Derri'?"  She turned around with the faintest of smiles on her muzzle.  "How are you?"

"I'm super, thanks for asking!"  Lovey giggled.  Her wings fluttered, the sudden motion causing the basket on her back to rattle slightly.  "How about you?"

Derri sighed and turned back to the selection of oranges and mangoes.  "I have no complaints.  While I have a new roommate to replace you, you are hardly replaced. She is a receptionist with no anxiety and no unique oddities, ordinary foalhood, and a standard coltfriend with whom she is visiting."

Lovey reached out to pat her on the shoulder.  "Aww, I'm sorry she's normal!  Maybe next time?"

"I believe I have had the standards set too high after having you as my first roommate."  Derri levitated an orange, turned it around a few times, then lowered it into her basket.

"Wait."  Lovey's ears perked up.  "Your roommate is visiting her coltfriend?  Does that mean you're all alone?"

Derri stepped to the side to look at the apples.  "That would be the correct assumption."

Lovey gasped.  "Oh, no!  No, no, no!  That simply won't do!  You can't be alone, not on family dinner date night!"  She grabbed Derri's hoof.  "You have to come over to our place, okay?  Absolutely have to!"

"Family date night?"  A familiar spark of curiosity lit up Derri's eyes.  "Is that to mean your parents will be there?"

"Well, of course!"  Lovey giggled.  "Who else?"

Derri gave an idle bob of her head. "I see."  It was good to know her vision was still intact.  "If it is not intruding, I would not decline."

Lovey's wings fluttered and the basket rattled again.  "I wouldn't offer if it was intruding, silly!"

"Then I accept."  Derri dropped two apples into her basket.  "I shall come by after I finish shopping and put the groceries away.  Thank you for the invite."

As Derri turned to walk away, Lovey called after her, "And don't worry!  My parents are totally not normal!"  She giggled at the sound of Derri chuckling after nearly stumbling over her own hooves.

Lovey missed mornings with her.  They had some good times together after she and Magnate worked things out and before she moved out.  But, it was okay!  If Derri came to their family dinner date nights, then she'd become part of their family.  And her normal roommate could come with her normal coltfriend, too!  Their family would get bigger and bigger, until all of Equestria was her family.

Okay, so maybe that was a little much, but it was fun to dream.  She liked dreaming.  It was a good substitute for chasing love lines.

"Is that all?" the cashier asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?  Oh!"  Lovey blinked and looked down at the counter.  She had grabbed the eggplants and the parmesan and everything else her parents had asked her to get, but there was also a bunch of other stuff, too.  Strawberries, cupcakes, cookies, and a tub of ice cream?

Now that she thought about it, they didn't have any sweets at the apartment.  Her subconscious was just trying to look out for her!  Lovey smiled self-satisfactorily and gave herself a mental congratulations, then nodded at the cashier.

"Yup!  That's all!"  Lovey giggled, dropping bits onto the counter and tucking the bag under one wing.  "Thanks so much!"

There was a happy song in Lovey's heart as she trotted out into the streets to begin the journey home, where her parents would be waiting.  It went something a little like—

"Whether he loves me," Lovey sang aloud almost unbidden, "or loves me not; sometimes it's hard to tell.  Yet I am longing to share the lot of beautiful Magny Bell!"

And just like that, she was home and the lock on the door undid itself just for her.  The sounds of her parents greeting her all at once washed over her in a wave of warmth and love.

"Welcome home!" four voices shouted in unison, two from the couch and two from the kitchen.

Lovey nearly choked on her over-excited giggles as she bounded inside, nearly dropping the bag of groceries.  "Hi!  Hello!  Hiyo!  Hiya!"  She hugged her mother, father, father, and mother, then smiled as they all embraced her at once.  Love was warm.  So warm.

"I got everything, and a little bit more!"  Lovey slipped out of their collective embrace and trotted into the kitchen.  "I don't know how it happened, but it happened.  All of a sudden I was buying some sweets.  Mom, you like sweets, right?"

"Of course," Suns answered.

Setting everything out on the counter, Lovey waggled her hooves at the array of sweets and dinner ingredients.  "Ta-da!"

Suns and Dia came over to stand at her sides, separating the produce to begin work on dinner and shooing Lovey to the living room.  They were such a great team, one prepping the vegetables while the other got the broth boiling.  Lovey watched them a moment longer before she turned to her fathers.

"How was the cloudball tournament?" she asked, settling onto the couch between them.

Squall ruffled her mane.  "You know your dear old dad will never lose to your dear old dad, not while the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west."

"Hey," Arc exclaimed with feigned offense, "don't forget that one day where the sun rose and set all over the horizon!"

Squall rolled his eyes.  "That was chaos.  Chaos doesn't count."

Lovey giggled and sat up to nuzzle her cheek to Arc's, then Squall's.  "Aww, you're both my favorite cloudball players!  Maybe someday Magny and I can come up to Cloudsdale to watch you both play!"

Squall flexed his wings and leaned back into the couch.  "Good luck getting that stick in the mud to do anything."

Reaching behind Lovey, Arc slapped the back of Squall's head.  "Hey!  He's doing good.  Get off his back already."

"Aww, both of you!"  Lovey raised her hooves and gave them pouting scowls.  "Magny is working really hard at his travel agency.  He's really happy, and I want him to come home today and feel happy."

"We care more about your happiness," Squall muttered.  "Are you happy, sweetheart?"

Lovey lowered her hooves just a bit, then reached out and booped Squall's nose.  "Of course, Dad.  I've never been happier."

A knock on the door turned all attention to it, and Lovey gasped.  "Oh my gosh!  I almost forgot!"  She jumped off the couch and ran over.  "Derri, hi there!"

Derri blinked slowly.  "Did I hear that right?  You almost forgot?"

"You should really use your inside voice," Dia chided in a playful tone, then smiled at Derri and waved.  "Hi!  You're Lovey's old roommate, right?"

"Yes."  Derri levitated a bottle of something bubbly into the air.  "I brought a gift to thank you for inviting me, but I am uncertain now if it is deserved."

Lovey gasped and grabbed the bottle with both hooves.  "It's definitely, totally deserved!"  She paused, then looked down at the label.  "What is it?"

"What does it say it is?"  Derri raised one brow.

"It's champagne," Dia said, taking the bottle from Lovey.  "I'm not sure if you're old enough to even hold this."

"What!  I'm totally old enough!"  Lovey spun around and flared out her wings to look bigger than she was.  "I've had alcohol before, I'll have you know!"

While Dia froze in mid-step, the sound of Derri taking notes like always filled Lovey's ears.

"Did Magnate get you drunk?" Squall asked, a certain malice rising into his voice.

Lovey looked around to find all eyes on her—Derri's held curious interest while her parents looked ready to kill.  Her mouth flapped open a few times before she bounded forward and jumped onto the couch to nestle between her fathers.  "Oh, don't be silly!  I got me drunk.  I was curious!"

With just a hint of disappointment, Derri set her notepad on the coffee table and took a newspaper to the recliner.  Squall and Arc stared Lovey down with the combined force of disapproval and slight curiosity.

"So," Arc started, crossing his forelegs over his chest.

Squall did the same and continued, "What did you have to drink?"

"What?"  Arc's wings twitched as he broke into laughter.  "That's not what matters right now!"

"It matters to me."  Squall waved a dismissive hoof, smiling down at Lovey.  "So?  What was it?"

Lovey giggled and twiddled her hooves.  "It was something with strawberries in it.  It was so tasty!  I loved it!  If champagne tastes anything like strawberries, then I'm gonna love it!"

Suns leaned out of the kitchen, her mane tied up into a tight bun to stay out of her way while she cooked.  "Speaking of, how are your love attacks?  Are they getting any better?"

"Yeah!"  Lovey nodded.  "As long as I don't focus on them, I don't even notice them."  Her gaze followed the two bright red lines that tied her parents together with their respective partners.  It comforted her to see them, but she quickly shook her head to pull herself back to the moment.  "Maybe someday I won't see them at all!"

Arc's brow furrowed and he took Lovey's hoof in both of his forehooves.  "Is it right to ignore your cutie mark?"

"I'm not, though!  Not this time.  Not like I was.  I'm totally still doing what my cutie mark tells me to do!  I help ponies every day with their love lines, even if I can't see them."  Lovey put her free hoof on top of his and gave it a light pat.  "I'm super duper happy every day I go to work and come home to Magny.  Promise to love and back!"

"To love and back," Arc repeated, leaning in to place a kiss on her forehead.

"That's all we care about."  Squall chuckled and closed his eyes.  "That, and reigning as the family's cloudball champion."

"Oh, you are not turning this conversation about you!"  Arc sat up to look over Lovey's head at him.  "Seriously?"

Squall snorted.  "I just want Lovey to know that her dad took a header right into a cumulus cloud."

Just as Arc opened his mouth to snap back, the lock clicked and the knob turned.  Lovey's heart skipped at least three beats, maybe even four!  She watched with anticipation as the door started to open as if in slow motion.

"Welcome home!" Suns called from the kitchen when Magnate stepped inside.  "You're just in time!"

Magnate's gaze wandered the room before locking onto Lovey's, sending her heart into a flurry of excitement.  Joy filled ever fiber of her being as she jumped into the air and sailed toward him.

Her forelegs wrapped around his neck in a tight hug and her heart settled into a normal state of excitement.  "Magny!  We were just talking about you!"  She lowered to the floor, but remained intimately close.  "How was work?  Did you have a good meeting with the hot air balloon pony?  What was the best part of your day?"

"Slow down."  Magnate chuckled as he put his suitcase away.  "I'm not even two hooves through the door."

Embarrassment shot through Lovey's chest and she hurriedly took a step back.  "Right, right!  Four hooves rule.  Sorry."  She waited patiently until he walked all the way into the apartment, and then hugged him with less overexcitement than before.  "Welcome home!"

"What is the 'four hooves rule'?" Derri asked from the recliner, the sound of the newspaper crinkling as it was folded over.

Magnate blinked, glancing between Lovey and Derri.  "What are you doing here?"

"Oh!  Oh!"  Lovey threw her forehooves into the air.  "I know the answer to both of those!"  She sat down and cleared her throat before lowering her voice to mimic Magnate's. "The four hooves rule is that Lovey shouldn't overwhelm Magnate when he gets home until he has all four hooves into the apartment."  She tried not to giggle as she looked up at him. "And Derri is here because we're having a family dinner and she's family!"

"Actually," Derri said, "it's because we ran into one another at the supermarket.  She invited me to dinner because I mentioned my roommate was out of town."

Lovey stuck out her lower lip and felt the onset of tears blur her vision.  "It's the least we can do, Magny!  Me moving out left her with no roommate, and this new one has gone out of town!  She's all alone because of you!"

Magnate frowned lightly while a hoof rubbed his chest.  Did he have heartburn?  Had he eaten already?  Didn't he know that it was family dinner date night?  "How is it my fault?  I gave you the choice of moving in, and you took it."

"By technicality, that would make it your fault, Lovey," Derri said in that voice she sometimes used when she was totally right and Lovey didn't want to admit it.

"Now, now, kids," Dia interrupted as she trotted over.  "Let's not fight during family dinner night."

Magnate sighed, but his expression was anything but exasperated.  He smiled and there was happiness in his eyes.  Lovey loved it when that happened.

"I'm sorry, Diamond," he said as he hugged Dia.  "It's nice to see you."

"Will somepony get the table ready?" Suns called.  "Soup's almost done!"

"Okay, Mom!" Lovey chirped, fluttering her wings and taking to the air.  

The song bubbled up from her chest while she rummaged through the cabinets and drawers to collect dinnerware for the table.

"Magny, Magny," the voice in her heart sang, "give me your answer true!  I'm half crazy, all for the love of you!"

"Lovey?" Suns asked, looking up from the stove.

Lovey came to a sudden halt in the air and tilted her head.  "Yes, Mom?"

"That song you're humming."  Suns tapped the ladle to the side of the pot.  "You used to sing it a lot as a filly, but I can't remember the words.  Do you remember, Didi?"

Dia peeked into the stove to check on the garlic bread, then shook her head.  "Nope!  It sounds familiar, though."

Lovey paused, her wings flapping just enough to keep her aloft.  Her gaze travelled over to where Magnate was in some kind of serious conversation with her fathers.  Warmth spread all the way from her hooves to the tips of her ears and she giggled to release some of the bubbling energy that filled her chest.

Was it possible that her heart had been searching for him all along?

Chasing away the thought to focus on the present, she flew over to the table and started to set out the plates and utensils.

"Here, let me help," Derri said as she walked up and grabbed the silverware in her magic.  "I saw your column in that magazine.  I'm glad that you have found a new outlet for your talent."

Lovey giggled and nodded.  "It's way more fun than being a weatherpony, that's for sure!  I know Dad loves it but I understand why Dad doesn't."

Derri's head turned to look at both stallions sitting on the couch.  "Yes, about that.  You have four parents.  I find that interesting."

"I told you they weren't normal!"  She bumped her shoulder to Derri's, then turned to the rest of the room.  "Mom!  Dad!  Dad!  Mom!"  She clapped her hooves to get their attention.  "You four sit here, here, here, and here!  Magny and I will sit here and here, and Derri can sit here!"

Magnate flicked an ear as he walked over, glancing between all of her parents.  "Wouldn't it be easier to differentiate them?"

Lovey tilted her head to one side after following his gaze.  "Huh?  What do you mean?"

"Mom, Mom, Dad, Dad.  Isn't it confusing?"  He waved a hoof to gesture in a circle.  "It would be more clear if you called them, I don't know—Mom One and Mom Two?"

What?  What!  Lovey gasped, feeling as if she had been struck.  She wrapped one leg around Dia's neck and dragged her over to Suns so she could embrace them both at the same time in an attempt to hug her feelings through to them.  "No way!  They're both Mom One to me!"

Magnate raised one brow and asked the most dreaded question of all.  "Then how do you know who she's speaking to?"

One hoof covered her left ear, and another covered her right.  Ah, they were going to say what she already knew: that neither of them knew the difference between Mom and Mom.  She giggled, her wings giving an amused flutter.  But that was the point!  There was no difference.  Sun Shower or Diamond Dust—both were her mother.  Both were Mom.  Whatever she needed, both fulfilled.

All of a sudden, Magnate burst into laughter.  It was so startling to see, and even more startling to hear when Suns and Dia withdrew their hooves.  Lovey tilted her head and smiled.  Magnate needed to laugh more.  He looked truly happy, and she loved that most of all.

"What's so funny?" she asked, tilting her head the other way.

"Nothing," Magnate managed between laughs.  "I'm just happy."

Lovey matched his laughter with a bout of giggles.  She closed the distance between them and nuzzled their noses together.  "Oh, that's a great reason to laugh!"

While everypony started to gather at the table—save for Derelict, who was writing in her little notepad like she usually did—Magnate stared at her.  His gaze was intense and deep, full of warmth and fondness.  It made her cheeks feel hot and her knees go weak, but she didn't want to miss a second of the way he looked at her, so she refused to swoon.

That was when Magnate moved.  He raised a hoof to reach into his vest and, stirring her heart into excited fluttering, lowered himself onto bended knee.

"Lovey," he murmured into the sudden silence after a chorus of gasps, "I have something I would like to say."

Lovey's voice came out much smaller than she expected, hardly above a squeaky whisper.  "Yes?"

Magnate smiled up at her.  "When I met you, I didn't know what to think.  I have never met a pony like you.  You are warm, bright—you are a star in the empty sky that was my life before you came into it.  Love was a word that held no meaning for me.  I would have never considered it on my horizon if not for you."

Was he proposing?  Lovey almost couldn't breathe.  She'd fantasized about being proposed to at least a thousand times: at an expensive dinner, under a moonlit sky, on top of a mountain, out on a boat, and so on and so on until she thought she had dreamed of every scenario.

"Lovey," he continued, "I know I said I wanted to take things slow, but that was before I understood love.  I understand it now.  Love is having somepony to come home to, which I've grown to look forward to every day since you moved in.  Love is having somepony there to share the simple moments with, like watching you smile innocently as your mothers tell me a secret."

She had never imagined being proposed to like this, with her family there to watch.  Her Mom and her Dad and her Dad and her Mom were being made a part of the most magical moment she could possibly imagine.

"But most of all, love is wonderful, because—if you say yes—neither of us will ever have to be alone again.  I know you have had doubts about us because of love lines.  While I know they are so important to you, I can't see them.  Unfortunately, I can't believe in what I can't see.  I am a stallion of logic and reason, and so I need something tangible to believe in."

His hoof pulled a small black box out of his vest that he held up and opened to reveal a rose gold band adorned with pink gemstones.  It was the single most beautiful ring she had ever seen in her life, at least before her vision filled up with tears.

"With this ring, I'll have something to see, and so will you if you'll marry me, Lovey Dovey."

Silence would have reigned supreme if not for the pounding of her heart and the small, choking sob that escaped her.  It took just a bit too long to find her voice, but when she did, it brought a smile to both her and Magnate's faces.

"Yes," she whispered through the tears that fell down her cheeks.  "Oh, Magny, yes, of course!"

While her parents all broke out into cheers—even Derelict gave a whoop of delight!—Magnate's magic levitated the ring into the air.  She pulled her left wing forward and he gingerly slipped it onto one of her longest primary feathers.  Although it was light as could be, the weight of a ring was the most wonderful feeling she never thought possible.

Magnate rose to his full height and Lovey sprung forward, throwing her forelegs around his neck and pressing her lips to his in a tearful, joyful kiss.  They were granted only a brief moment to themselves before four pairs of legs wrapped around the pair in one giant group hug.

He pulled back just enough to whisper against her lips, "So, what do you think, Miss Matchmaker?"

Lovey smiled while her parents filled the air with excited chatter and whispered back, "It's a perfect match."